Phike: Familiar Faces Trilogy 2
by christacox13
Summary: Part of the Familiar Faces companion trilogy. Can be read on its own, or with the other two books. Details Mike & Phoebe's life in 2018, including new and old characters from the original series. All rights for characters or places where applicable go to David Crane and Marta Kauffman, not me. Modern day AU. Characters portrayed by the original actors/actresses. Please review.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is the second book in the companion trilogy, Familiar Faces. It is a Phike modern day AU story set in 2018, and will be about their life. It will feature the main six characters including Mondler and Roschel as couples, and probably some new characters too. Assume that Phoebe and Mike are played by Lisa Kudrow and Paul Rudd, as this won't be stated throughout the novel to avoid unintentionally breaching any Copyright or Privacy regulations. Will be written simultaneously with the other two stories from the POV of Mondler and Roschel respectively, so keep an eye out for those as well as this one.

Please also review this one and the others, as this makes such a difference in terms of holding me accountable for updating and also allows me to interact with you guys and potentially incorporate some of your own ideas.

Chapter 1 – Phoebe

"Do you want some of your rose tea?" Mike asks me from the kitchen.

"Yes please," I say, sitting down on the couch with our twins, Adeline and Christopher. They were watching some kind of weird TV show that I guess eight year olds enjoy.

After a few minutes of me focusing on the TV, Mike came over to the couch with a tray of tea and cinnamon French toast for me and the twins.

"Thanks, babe," I say to Mike, kissing him lightly on the cheek.

"Is that for us?" Adeline asks, her eyes lighting up when she saw the tray.

"Yes," I say, happily. Her enthusiasm made me happy as I never really got to experience enthusiasm over the kind of trivial things that excite young children at her age, but with her and Christopher it was like I was experiencing it first-hand.

Christopher and Adeline reach for the French toast, and I take a slice for myself before it's all gone. Mike is a ridiculously good cook, almost rivalling Monica. I move over on the couch so that there is room for Mike to sit down.

"You're the best," I tell Mike.

"No, you are the best," Mike says, wrapping his arm around me.

I kiss Mike on the cheek as a way of thanking him for what he was saying. We sit together and watch the twins. I'm glad to have this moment of peace now, because I know that when I get to the kindergarten it will be far from peaceful. It was sad having to give up my job as a masseuse to be only a hobby, but it wasn't financially supportive enough when Mike and I had the kids. I don't mind looking after the kids, and they seem to like my creative ideas for activities to do.

The credits start rolling on the TV, and so I switch it off. "Kids," I start to say to Adeline and Christopher. "Go and start getting ready and I'll be up there soon to help!"

They run off together, which leaves Mike and I to start washing up the breakfast dishes and getting ready for the day.

"How are you feeling about work?" I ask Mike, whilst drying up a plate.

"Pretty good," Mike says. "I have that wedding performance that I told you about a while ago."

"Oh yeah," I say, remembering our conversation. As a pianist, Mike often gets called out to play at weddings and in theatres or concerts. It's very much a freelance job, which is also why I had to get a job that had more of a stable wage. "You'll do great."

"Love you, babe," he says, grinning as he hands me another plate to wash up.

We manage to get the washing done quicker than I had expected, as I had mentally overestimated the time I had thought it would take. "I'm going to go and check on Addie and Chris," I tell Mike, "so the bedroom's all yours for the moment."

"Thanks, Pheebs," he says.

I walk up the stairs, and see that the twins' door is ajar. I continue to make my way across the landing, and twist the doorknob open. A feather flies past me, and it takes a minute for the bedroom to come in focus. I can now see that there are a large amount of loose feathers on the floor, and two screaming and laughing children on their respective beds, clutching pillows.

"What did we say about school mornings not being an appropriate time for pillow fights?" I say, trying not to laugh.

Christopher speaks first. "Since you weren't up here, and weren't supposed to know, Addie and I thought that it didn't count," he says, shrugging. "The mess ratted us out though," he adds, looking around at the mess that surrounded him and his sister.

Adeline speaks up afterwards, sounding slightly nervous. "I hope we're not in trouble, Mom," she says, sheepishly.

I survey the room whilst trying to think. "You aren't in trouble with Dad and I," I start to say, "but can you both help me clear it up and then we'll call it even?"

Adeline and Christopher both nod at me in agreement. Addie starts trying to gather the feathers up, and Chris starts moving the pillows around so they both have an equal amount on their beds. I start helping Addie with the feathers, and then move on to assessing the damage done on the pillows.

"Pheebs!"

I hear Mike coming towards the bedroom and shout, "Come on in here!" Mike appears at the bedroom door, and looks around. "It looks like you guys have had a lot of fun in here," he says to the twins. "Almost too much," he adds afterwards. I can tell that he is struggling to keep a straight face.

He looks at me, and asks, "Pheebs, do you want to take a break to go and get dressed and I'll take over?"

"Thanks," I say, leaving the damaged pillow pile that I had created and started navigating my way out of the bedroom.

I made a beeline straight to Mike and I's bedroom, which was on the opposite side to the twins. When I got inside, I could see that Mike had made an effort to tidy his side of the bed and had even tidied mine. I made a mental note to thank him later, and walked towards the shared closet. I chose a casual outfit which included one of my fluffy jumpers and jeans because it was fall and they were also practical to wear when dealing with young children.

When I was done in the bathroom, I decided to go check on Mike and see how the progress with the bedroom was coming along. I also remembered that neither of the twins were dressed, and so I was going to make sure that they made a start with that because they didn't have much time left. I was supposed to be driving them, since the kindergarten that I work at was right next door to their school.

Mike comes out of the bedroom before I get to there. "Pheebs, we've cleared up as much as we can – I think someone will have to hoover later. Nevertheless, both Addie and Chris are actually starting to get ready now."

I heave a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much, Mike," I say, "You're an absolute lifesaver."

"It's all part of being a father and being part of a family," he says, "but I appreciate the sentiment."

I move closer towards Mike, and we hug. I pull apart from him soon after, and walk to the bedroom. When I walk in, I see that Addie and Chris have actually started to get ready and that the bedroom looks considerably less messy.

"Hey, Mom," Chris says, tugging a jumper over his head.

Adeline walks over towards me, and motions for me to help her zip up the back of her dress. She is wearing tights underneath, and I see that she has a cardigan on her bed which makes me feel less worried that there would be any chance of her getting too cold.

"How are you two feeling about going back to school?" I ask the twins.

Christopher speaks first. "I just don't want it to boring," he says, "and I want to be in the same class as Addie, so I'm not completely alone."

"I'm sure you will be together," I say, hoping that the confidence in my voice reassures Chris. "Even so, you definitely wouldn't be alone for long because you are friendly and likeable."

Chris hugs me as his way of thanking me.

Once both of the twins are done getting changed, I usher them into the bathroom. The only reason I have to supervise them is because they have a track record of covering each other in Mike's shaving foam amongst other creative but naughty behaviour.

Luckily for me, they are both done soon with only Addie's failed attempt at grabbing my dry shampoo and spraying it as if it was perfume at Chris. I grab my coat from my room with the intention of walking straight back out, but I see Mike.

"Are you off now?" I ask him, slightly confused as to why he is still here.

"Yeah," he says. He notices my confused expression, and adds, "I had to sort my hair because the classic bed hair look wasn't quite what I was going for."

I laugh, and move so that Mike can walk past me. "Have a good day, babe!" I shout.

"You too, Pheebs!" he shouts in return.

I walk downstairs, and see that Chris and Addie are waiting patiently for me. I heave another sigh of relief because it meant that I had another potential worry about this morning after the other events covered. "Go outside and wait for me beside the car," I tell them.

I grab my scarf from where it is hanging up with the various old coats that are no longer in use, and walk out the door. I take one footstep outside onto the concrete sidewalk and realise that, in all my endeavours to be organised, I have forgotten to wear my boots. I take a step back through the door, and put the boots on. I walk back out, locking the door after myself.

In my handbag, I reach for the car keys and unlock the car. "Let me go in the front!" Addie shouts, running towards shotgun before Chris can get a chance. He realises, though, and runs straight to join his sister.

"Okay, okay," I say, fumbling in my handbag for my purse. "I'm going to have to toss a coin to help us decide fairly who gets to call shotgun this morning, and whoever doesn't will get it later."

Chris and Addie watch me apprehensively. "Heads or tails?" I say.

"Heads!" Chris says.

"Okay," I say, flipping the coin. "It's tails, so you get it Addie."

Chris groans in disappointment whilst Addie celebrates, triumphantly. She runs toward the car, and hops into the shotgun seat. I used the key to turn the ignition on, and start to back out of the parking space into the main road.

Addie leans over and turns on the radio. It's still tuned into Mike and I's favourite radio station that play older music that Addie and Christopher don't like, and so I am not so bothered when Addie changes it to one of the modern pop radio stations.

"I love this song!" she exclaims. I don't recognise the beat, but the lyrics are catchy. Regardless of that, it was really not my favourite, but I could appreciate the lyrics as they seem drastically better than any of mine were. I still have the guitar that I used to play up somewhere in the loft, but I don't have the time to attempt to write any new songs because that Phoebe has been long dead. I definitely have days where I miss it, though.

It doesn't take long before I am pulling up at Addie and Chris's school. "Do you want me to come in with you guys?" I ask.

"We'll be fine," Chris says, badly attempting to sound confident because I can hear the nervousness in his voice.

"The offer is there if you want it," I say, as they climb out and say goodbye to me.

I drive on until I reach the kindergarten building further down the road. I drive through the automatic bollards until I come to the staff car park. I back the car into the nearest free spot, and pull the key out of the ignition. I pick up my handbag off of the shotgun seat as I had put it there after Addie had got out, and jumped down from the seat. I slammed the door shut, and started to walk towards the kindergarten reception.

"Good morning, Phoebe!" the receptionist, Martha says as I scan the name tag that's tied around my neck by a lanyard to sign in.

"You too, Martha," I say, whilst walking through the automatic double doors. I make a beeline down the corridor for the staff room, where I already see some of my colleagues.

As I am making my way towards the sink and the cafetiere, I hear someone say my name and turn around. It's one of my fellow colleagues, Joanna.

"Hey! How are you?" I ask. "I feel so rude but I didn't see you come up behind me."

"Oh, don't worry," Joanna says, sounding apologetic and slightly embarrassed. "I'm doing well – what about you? How have the twins been?"

"I'm doing good," I say, "but I had a bit of a stressful morning. The twins decided that it was a good idea to have a pillow fight instead of getting ready, and so Mike and I had to help them clean up the feathers and assess the damage."

"That sounds pretty stressful," Joanna says.

"Yeah," I say, trying to stifle the urge to laugh. Thinking about what the twins did now that I am no longer in a rush now makes me laugh because it is surprisingly funny. "It was good fun, in the end. Keeps life interesting!"

Joanna agrees, as we continue walking toward the cafetiere. "Do you want me to make you a coffee?" she offers.

"Thank you so much," I say. "You really don't have to."

I wait against the counter whilst Joanna makes to mugs of coffee. I take mine from her when it's ready and thank her. "I wish we could talk more," I say, looking at the clock that was on the other side of the room, "but I have to get to lesson in less than five minutes."

"It's fine," Joanna says, also looking in that direction. "Shit!" she exclaimed. "I have to go too!"

"Let's walk in that direction together," I say, and she agrees.

A/N: And that wraps up the third story and first chapter! I hope that you enjoy this book as much as you did with the beginnings of the other two novels in the Familiar Faces companion trilogy! Another friendly reminder that you are more than welcome to check out the other two books, from the POVs of Mondler and Roschel respectively, and leave your thoughts in a review and any other suggestions. Finally, please read and review this one, and I will happily welcome suggestions for future plot ideas! Thank you so much again for sticking with me and giving my books a chance – it means the world to me and I honestly can't put in two words how grateful I am for all the support.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I am very excited to bring you guys the second chapter of Phoebe and Mike's story! All the support that I am receiving for all three stories within this series is absolutely surreal, and I honestly don't know how to thank you. As I said, I am alternating perspectives between the couples because it seemed to be a good idea, and will also apply to the other two books. Please also keep a look out for a book that I am writing that is a crossover between Cougar Town and Friends and one that is only Cougar Town. Anyways, let's continue on with the next chapter.

Chapter 2 – Mike

I keep one hand on the steering wheel, whilst looking at Phoebe in the shotgun seat. "Is it this one?" I say, pointing at the sushi restaurant that was on the other side of road.

Phoebe glances down at the restaurant website that was up on her phone with the map, and nods. "Yeah."

I pull over at the side of the road where there are lines that you can park on, and take the key out of the ignition once I've backed into the spot. I throw the keys to Phoebe, who catches them and puts them in her bag. She gets out, and walks into the road to open the door for Christopher so he's safe. I get out myself, and go round to open the door for Adeline. Phoebe insisted that we have child locks fitted on both cars so that the kids would endanger themselves, but they didn't fit on her car much to my amusement.

The four of us cross the road and stop outside the door to the restaurant. It's quite posh, and my worry that I would feel overdressed in my tux from earlier in the day at the wedding disappeared. Phoebe twists the doorknob and waits at the sign that was asking us to politely wait for a waiter to come and take us to our seat.

She gives me a desperate look, whilst trying to keep Chris and Addie from wandering off, and I move closer to them. A waitress comes over to us, and I move right up to talk to her.

"Table for 4, if that's okay," I say, and the waitress nods.

"That will be fine," she says. "Come through," she motions for Phoebe and I and the kids to follow her. She takes us to a booth towards the centre of the restaurant and a little off to the right. Addie hops onto the seat closest to me, and then Phoebe decides to sit at the one directly next to her. I sit down in the very last seat that is at the left end of the table. Chris joins me in the seat that's directly next to it.

Before the waitress leaves, she leaves two adult menus and two child menus in the centre of the table. "I'll be back to take your orders for drinks," she says, as she leaves to go behind the counter.

Phoebe searches in her bag, and takes out the twins' iPads. She passes the first one to Chris and hands the second to me to give to Addie. "Thanks for suggesting this place," I say to Phoebe. "It looks so cool."

"You're welcome," Phoebe replies. "A colleague at work suggested it. She has kids and had been here before so she knew that one of our biggest worries would be Addie and Chris."

I nod. "Yeah," I say, whilst looking through the menu. "I'm going to have to go for lemonade or coffee, unless you were planning on driving the way back home."

"I'll drive so you can have a beer," Phoebe says back to me.

"Are you sure?" I said, because I didn't want to force Phoebe to have to drive just so I could drink.

"Yes, it's fine," Phoebe said, looking at me with her best sincere look. "I don't mind at all."

"Thanks, Pheebs," I smile, and pass the menu to her as I am definitely going to take the chance to have a beer.

We sit in silence for about five minutes until the waitress comes back over to take our orders.

"Shall I go first?" I ask Phoebe, and she gives me a nod. "I would like a pint of beer," I say, and the waitress writes it down. "Is that all?" she asks.

I turn to Addie. "What do you want?" I ask her. She points to the orange juice on the kids menu. "My daughter wants an orange juice," I say.

The waitress writes that down and turns to Chris and Phoebe. "What can I get you guys?" the waitress asks.

"I would like a cappuccino," Phoebe says, as she turns to Christopher. He points towards something in the kids menu. "My son would like apple juice," she says, and the waitress writes it down. She talks through the order, and Phoebe and I say that that's all we want. The waitress says that she will come back when we are ready to order our food, and that we should just wave her over when we need her.

I sit back in my seat, and take my phone out of my pocket. I smile down at my lock screen, which is a picture of Pheebs, Chris and Addie when we last went on a hike together. I have an email notification from the bride of the wedding that I was at earlier thanking me for doing it, and saying that the money that she was paying me for the service would be sent to Phoebe and I's bank account as soon as she could. I also had a text from Phoebe from much earlier today when she was at recess break and had wished me good luck for the wedding performance.

I swiped up on the lock screen and typed in my password. I started to compose an email to my client and then sent it. I decided then to check Facebook. I saw that Monica had recently been on her timeline to celebrate the fact that Jack and Erica had had a successful first day at high school. I clicked on the post to comment, and typed out a congratulations to them both. I scrolled further down my timeline, and saw that Chandler had reposted a joke that I hadn't seen before. It was a one-liner that I had to try and stifle the laughter that bubbled up inside me whilst reading it because we were out in public and I thought that Phoebe wouldn't have appreciated me laughing drawing attention to us.

I put away my phone after remembering that I needed to choose what I wanted to eat as well and ask Addie too. I decided on getting a sushi platter with a little of everything as I couldn't just decide on one thing, and I wasn't too sure of the different types of sushi and what I liked.

"Hey, Ads," I said to Addie, and she looked up from her iPad. "Have you chosen what you want?"

"I didn't realise that sushi is raw fish," Addie said, "So can I have chips instead?" She pointed towards the kids menu, and I saw that chips was an option on the menu.

"Sure," I said, making a mental note of it for the waitress. I turned back to Phoebe. "Are we ready to order yet?" I asked her.

"I think we are," Phoebe replied, and I waved over the waitress. "I would like the sushi platter, and my daughter would like a plate of chips," I say.

The waitress nods, and writes it down. She turns to Phoebe, who orders for herself and Chris. The waitress then walks away and disappears behind the counter. I get out my phone again, and continue to scroll through Facebook. I pause when I see that Joey has posted on his status, and click on it. Apparently he has just secured one of the main roles in one of the most anticipated films to come out next year, and so I decide to like the post and comment my congratulations.

"Pheebs," I say, and she looks over. "Joey has secured one of the major roles in Vengeance of the Darkness!"

"Really?" Phoebe, looking excited. I pass over my phone to her so she can read the post. She reads it, and says, "That's amazing! His career has been really taking off just recently!"

"I know," I say, happily. "He really deserves it after struggling for so long with only smaller roles, obviously with the exception of Days of our Lives."

Phoebe agrees. "It's been ages since we last saw him," she says, and I agree. The last time that we saw him was at the New Year's celebration party that Monica and Chandler held earlier this year, and even that was a stretch for him because he has started to get so busy with his career but didn't want to let that affect spending time with his friends more than it had to.

"Maybe we'll get an invitation to an early screening of the film," I say, as this has been the case for all his projects yet where he can make it happen.

"Probably," Phoebe replies. "He's always been that sweet, even when he started becoming more famous."

I agree with Phoebe. We don't see much of the others, but the one who's been the best at keeping in touch is by far Monica and Chandler, but I think that's to be expected with how much Monica cares about all of us. She really is still the mother of all of us, even though she now has her own adorable family, and we'd all be lying if we said we didn't still love and appreciate it.

Almost just as I was thinking that, a notification for a text flashed up at the top of my phone screen. It was from Monica, and she was asking when Phoebe, the kids and I were free to do something together and with Ross and Rachel and their daughters as well. I showed the text to Phoebe.

"We don't have any plans this weekend, I don't think," she said. "Reply to Monica saying that this weekend should be fine with us."

I replied as Phoebe wanted me to, and then turned my phone off and slipped it back in my pocket. A few minutes later, the waitress comes over with our food. I helped pass around the plates to the kids.

"I'm sorry that I also forgot to give you your drinks," she apologises, looking awkward. "I'll be right back in a minute," she added, before rushing back behind the counter.

I start eating my sushi platter. The waitress comes back, apologises again and gives us our drinks. She goes away again, and I return to eating my sushi.

"The food here is really good," I say, feeling pleasantly surprised. "It really lives up to the cool but equally as professional vibe."

Phoebe agrees, and I see that the kids also look happy. Addie is quietly eating her chips, whilst Chris is attempting to successfully dip a rice roll in the small container of soy sauce with his chopsticks. I resist the urge to laugh at his currently futile attempts as it's adorable, but I wouldn't want to risk embarrassing or upsetting him in front of everyone here at the restaurant.

Phoebe notices my gaze, and leans over to help him. She demonstrates with her own chopsticks, and then she guides Chris's hand whilst he has a go. He manages to do it, so she lets him have a go again completely by himself. He's successful, and looks up at Phoebe with the biggest heart-warming smile. He looks over at me, and I smile.

"Well done, Chris!" I say. "Now you'll be able to steal Mom's chopsticks at home!" I add a laugh afterwards, earning a look from Phoebe which is somewhere in between disapproving and amusement. "Not that you would get away with it now," I add.

Chris laughed, and Phoebe and I met each other's gaze and smiled in happiness that our son was happy. "You'll have to keep it down slightly," I say to Chris, and he focuses back on his sushi.

"It was definitely the best idea to come here to celebrate the first day back at school and work," I said to Phoebe. "Thank you again, Pheebs."

"Babe," Phoebe says, with her chopsticks in one hand. "You don't need to thank me since you are part of what has made this dinner outing so good."

I smiled even wider at Phoebe, feeling truly blessed for about the fifth time today that I chose to marry someone as sweet, beautiful and down-to-earth as Phoebe. I can tell that she is thinking the same kind of way about me, and our eyes lock in a mutual expression of gratitude and appreciation for each other. We all finish our meals, and then Phoebe and I argue over who will pay the bill, and I make the final decision that we'll split the bill between us.

I round up Addie and Chris, and take them to the toilets as I know that neither Phoebe nor I would appreciate either child needing the bathroom on our way home and being forced to pull over because of it. I wait between the doors to the female and male toilets, until I decide that I may as well go myself. Luckily, Addie is waiting for me when I get out because my only worry was that either of the kids would go looking for me or Phoebe, and get lost somewhere where they shouldn't be.

We only have to wait about two seconds for Chris to join Addie and I, so I then start to lead the way out of the restaurant to the car. Phoebe is already sitting in the driver's seat, and so I call shotgun as agreed once I had helped the kids get into the car safely. Phoebe backs out of the parking space, and we start to drive in the direction to join the highway.

A/N: Sorry to cut this chapter a little short, but I thought that leaving it here seemed a pretty solid place to finish. I hope that you like this instalment of the story, and I hope that you will continue to read and review future chapters as well as my other works which include the other two books within this trilogy and my Cougar Town and Friends crossover and the book which is solely set in the Cougar Town world, but is a prequel. I am always open to suggestions for new subplot ideas, and I hope that you guys are happy to see some inclusion of Joey, as I know that he is the other main character that I haven't mention so far in this trilogy. As always, thank you so much for all the support in all I've written, and I hope that you will continue to enjoy it!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Hey guys! This is the third part of my Mike and Phoebe story, which continues on from the Mondler and Phike ones that I have just written. This is probably going to be my last upload for just under a week, which gives you guys the perfect opportunity to catch up on the other chapters within the Familiar Faces Trilogy, and the Friends and Cougar Town crossover and the Cougar Town prequel that are already in the works and read, review and make suggestions for improvements. With that being said, I want to remind everyone how grateful I am for your continued support to my work and how it really makes my day that people can be bothered to read it. Let's get on with the story:

Chapter 3 – Phoebe

"Did you guys have any plans for dinner?" Monica asks Mike and I.

"Not that I can think of off of the top of my head," I said, looking for Mike's reassurance that there wasn't a plan that we had made and I was just being forgetful. He shook his head.

"So you guys would be okay with doing whatever the others wanted to do?" Mon says, and we both nodded.

Addie and Christopher were now talking to Lara, Jack and Erica despite being quite shy when they first saw them earlier. I was worried at first that the fact that they are 6 years younger than the others would make things awkward, but I was glad to see that it didn't seemed to be much of a problem anymore. Mike had said that they would be fine.

"Hey, Phoebe," I heard someone say, and turned around to see Emma.

"Oh, hi Emma," I said, surprised to see her. "You okay?"

She nodded. "I'm good. I just was coming over to say that it's really nice to see Addie and Chris, because I see Jack and Erica far more than I see them," she said, and I smiled because I had no idea that the other kids liked them so much.

"That's so good to hear," I say, genuinely happy and surprised. "Mike and I are also happy to be here to see the others because with everyone working and family stuff it gets hard to be able to see each other in general like we used to be able to, and so you really have to seize every opportunity that comes your way."

"Yeah," Emma agreed. "School just got much busier for me because I'm now a junior in high school so I have SATs for college later this year."

"I didn't get much of a high school experience," I said, "but that does sound kind of stressful."

"Yeah," Emma said. "It's not too bad, at least at the moment."

"That's good," I say. "Have you thought about what you might choose to major in at college?"

Emma stopped to think for a few minutes before answering. "Probably something to do with social media marketing," she said. "Not too academic, but not completely vocational either."

"That sounds awesome," I say. "My only word of advice for you is just to remember to follow your dreams and do whatever makes you happy, and I know it's kind of cringy and you've probably heard it a million times, but it will really make the difference."

"Thanks for the advice, Phoebe," Emma says, looking sincere. "I really appreciate it, especially after all the pressure that is starting to be piled on at school by careers advisors and stuff."

I was slightly taken aback by that because I didn't realise that there would already be so much pressure to choose what like 15 and 16 year olds wanted to as careers for the rest of their life. I would be so daunted by that prospect, and I add that to one of the reasons that I am grateful that I never attended college or high school.

"Just remember that I didn't go to high school or college, and I still had a successful career as a masseuse and now a kindergarten teacher so grades and qualifications aren't the only thing that determine whether you are able to get jobs," I said, hoping that Emma would feel comforted my own experience.

"Thanks again, Phoebe," Emma said. "You're so supportive!"

I opened my arms to offer Emma a hug, and she accepted it. We hugged for a couple of minutes until Emma broke away, and we walked back over to join Ross, Mike, Chandler, Monica, Rachel and the kids.

They were deep in conversation, but from what I could make of it, they were still on the topic of deciding on where we were going to eat. Monica seemed to be leading the conversation as I would've expected from her, and the others were trying to chip in but the person that seemed to be having the greatest impact on the decision that was made was Chandler.

"Are we eating at the café here or somewhere else?" I asked, trying to gain a better understanding of the direction of the conversation by inserting myself in it through asking questions.

"That's what we're trying to decide," Monica said, with a tone to her voice which I recognised as the one that she used when she was in a dictatorial mood. "So far, Ross and Chandler here just want to stay at the café because it's the easiest, quickest decision; Rachel and I want to go somewhere else which is a little bigger and more sophisticated and Mike is completely neutral."

I was trying to think of the best way to phrase how I felt about the decision at hand. "I don't really mind much either, but I sort of agree with Rachel and you that we should go somewhere bigger since we have all of you guys," I gestured around at all the adults and Emma, "and the kids, so the staff here might not appreciate how much we will end up ordering and the noise we'll make."

"Phoebe here makes a good point," Monica said, "so, if it's okay with you, Ross and Chandler darling, I think we might just go to the place that's roughly in the direction of going back home."

Ross and Chandler nodded, probably after Chandler persuaded Ross and himself that there was no point in arguing against Monica, especially if it meant that they would have to get food later and didn't want to miss out on that.

Monica grabbed Rachel and I over to tell us the address of the restaurant so we could put it in our GPS apps on our phones. I then walked over to Mike, and we rounded up Adeline and Christopher and started walking to the car with the others.

"Do you want to drive or should I?" I asked Mike. I stopped to think for a moment. "Who's more likely to drink at the restaurant later?" I added.

"I'll let you, babe," Mike said, "so I'll drive on the way back and you can drive on the way there."

I nodded. "Sounds fair," I said, and I started looking through my handbag to get the keys as we were approaching the car. I opened the car with the keys, and Addie and Chris got in the back seats. Mike got into the shotgun seat and I slid into the seat behind the steering wheel.

I put the key in the ignition, and handed Mike my phone to hold during the journey to guide us home since I didn't have a phone stand in my car. I carefully backed out of the estate carpark and started to drive towards the entrance. We were right behind Monica and Chandler's car because I recognised the number plate.

"Hey, we're right behind Mon," I say to Mike. Their car stops to let a car ahead of us pass, and I see the heads of Erica and Jack in the backseats. Mike follows my gaze, and sees what I'm seeing.

"Cool," he says, looking back down at my phone.

We don't have to wait too much longer until we approach the highway, and lose the Geller-Bing's car that we have been following for quite some time now. We are only on the highway for half an hour more, and are soon enough pulling into the carpark of the restaurant. I carefully drive over the gravel in my quest to find a parking spot, and manage to find one after searching for a much shorter time than I had expected.

I back into the parking spot with Mike guiding me through the right wing mirror as we are trying to squeeze into quite a tight spot. I manage to successfully park into the spot without hitting any of the other cars either side of us, and pull the key out of the engine and turn off the ignition. Mike gets out of the shotgun seat, and goes to open the door for Chris who is in the backseat right behind him. I do the same for Addie, and then we join each other at the front of the car.

Mike and I both start walking towards the entrance of the restaurant. I had already assumed that one of the others would be here, which turned out to help us when I walked in because I spotted Monica almost immediately, sitting down with Chandler and her kids with menus on the table already.

"Pheebs!" Monica called over to her, dropping her menu on the table and starting to walk over. "How was your journey over here?"

"Good," I said. "Have you guys been here long?"

Monica shifted on her feet. "Not long, no. Just about five minutes," she said. "You guys should come join us."

"Okay," I said, and Mike and the twins followed Monica and I towards the table that the others were sitting at. It was a fairly long table, but one of the only ones in the whole restaurant because I assumed that they were often reserved for parties or large gatherings like work do's that were pre-booked.

I sat in the seat that was opposite Chandler, and at the far end of the whole table itself. Mike sat down next to me, and the twins sat on the opposite side between Chandler, Jack and Erica. "Have you already ordered drinks?" I asked Chandler.

"We were just about to," he replied. "I think that Monica was getting impatient because no one else had turned up because, as far as I know, the initial plan was to wait for the others."

I spotted Rachel, Ross, Emma and Lara walking in through the door of the restaurant, but Monica was already there the minute I started walking over to them to see if I could catch them up. I decided to sit back down, and wait for them to fill up the table to start talking.

"Sorry we're late, Mon," Rachel said, as she hung her jacket on the back of her chair. "The traffic was kind of horrible so it was completely out of control."

"It's fine," Monica said, "if it was out of your control like it sounds like it was, then no one can be blamed so it's totally fine with me."

She sat down after guiding Rachel and the others to their seats, and stood up to get some more menus. Monica came back, and passed them around to the others who didn't have menus in the first instance. I flipped over my menu to the drinks section, and started looking through all the drinks available. I decide to order a glass of white wine.

Monica stands up and claps her hands to address the whole table. "Can I take any of you guys' orders for drinks?" she said, looking around at all of us.

Chandler piped up with his order. "I'll take a beer, thanks babe," he said.

"I'd like a glass of white," I said, and Monica looked at me happily as she always liked people that played to her game, whatever it was.

"I'll come back for you guys," Monica said, walking off to the counter and I saw that she was mentally recounting the list of the order so far.

I just sat back, and embraced the atmosphere of the others talking with each other. It made me so happy that everyone was together, especially since it had really started to hit me just how little that Mike and I manage to see the others and how much it reminded me of when we used to live basically next to each other. I still think of the all the memories that we shared in our late twenties, early thirties and reminisce on those days and how much I wish they still existed.

A/N: Sorry to cut this chapter off a little, but I was getting desperate to finish it and I didn't want to make it ridiculously long for you guys. This is going to be my last chapter between now and almost a week, so I hope you guys will appreciate the fact that I have written all three chapters in the trilogy as an update and potentially check out the rest of my works, the Cougar Town/Friends crossover and the book that I have written which is only about Cougar Town. I hope you guys like this chapter and read and review it and give me suggestions for future plot ideas, and also let me know if you guys would want chapters written from the perspectives of any of the children by telling me in the comments. Thank you so much again for all your support, and I hope that you guys have a good Christmas if you celebrate.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Hey guys it's your (least) favourite writer back, just to say that with the last chapter that I posted in this trilogy, I was so pleasantly surprised by the insanely good feedback it received so thank you so much. I had many doubts about making sure that what I wrote was not cringy or melodramatic, so I really hope that it stays that way. I am excited to bring you the fourth chapter in the Phoebe and Mike book, which pretty much picks up from where the Roschel one left off. Also, I have decided to change up the chapter algorithm as, even though the last chapter in this specific book had been from Phoebe's point of view, it would only be logical in moving the storyline ahead to have this chapter also be from her instead of Mike. All that being said, and a friendly reminder that I would appreciate you guys' to leave any thoughts or suggestions that you have as a review, let's continue on to the chapter:

Chapter 4 – Phoebe

"Hope these are okay," Mike said, as he bought over a plate of blueberry pancakes that he had made for our breakfast to the table.

The kids were upstairs and had already eaten, so Mike and I had taken the chance to have breakfast as a couple, as we didn't often get the chance to be alone at this time of day. I looked up and met Mike's gaze as he sat down next to me. "They're wonderful, as usual," I say, and Mike grins happily back. Sometimes I wonder why he even has to have me reassure him his cooking is good, since me and the twins are always asking for more, but he's too humble to admit it.

"Have you heard much from the others since the weekend?" Mike asks me, suddenly looking shocked at my confused expression that had appeared as he spoke. "Have you been on Facebook yet?"

"First of all," I started saying, "one question at a time. Second of all, no I haven't."

"Ohh," Mike said, and I looked at him quizzically. "That makes more sense now," he added, with what seemed to be a very grave expression on his face.

"Why the face?" I said, starting to get irritated at the lack of answers to what was going on. "Has something bad happened?"

Mike opened his mouth to speak, hesitated and shut it again. He stepped down from his seat, and walked over to where both our phones were sat charging. He unplugged mine and passed it over to me as he sat down again beside me.

I tapped in my password, and opened up Facebook. At the top of my timeline, there was a post by Ross Geller. It was from just over 24 hours ago, and I could see the top comment, which was all hearts and praying emojis with the words 'all my love'. I clicked on the comment to bring up the rest of the messages and saw that they were all very similar. Because this had given me no further clues as to what was going on apart from that it seemed to be pretty serious, I read the original post.

Mike must have noticed my expression change, as he said, "Yeah," and I knew he understood. We sat there for a couple of minutes before I finally decided to say something. "Oh, god," was all I could muster. A million things were running through my mind, mainly categorised by worrying for Monica and Ross. It was one of their parents, after all.

"Should I call either of them?" I asked Mike, trying desperately to think over ways that we could be helpful and supportive as the good friends that we are.

"Probably not either of them directly as I think it will be too soon," he replied. "But you could talk to Chandler, or Rachel. They must have been told something."

"Good idea," I agreed. "It's probably far too soon to speak to either Ross or Monica with any kind of success of getting a clear answer, so I'll try the other two to see if they have any suggestions for ways that we could be helpful."

I looked up at the clock in the kitchen, contemplating whether now would be a good idea to call. It was quarter past seven, so I assumed that Monica would be busy looking after the twins. I walked out through the door at the corner of the kitchen near the stove and into the mini sidewalk that ran down the side of the house into the garden from the garage area.

I dialled Chandler's mobile number, because I didn't want to risk Monica picking up instead. On the third ring, I got through.

"Hi, Phoebe?" I heard Chandler to say.

"Hi, Chandler," I said, mentally reviewing what I was going to say. "How are things?"

"Not bad," Chandler replied, without hesitation, which confused me. I was pretty sure that if you received news like the fact that your wife's mother was ill, you wouldn't be so quick to reply or sincere.

I paused for a while, thinking over how I would bring up the topic since Chandler had caught me completely off guard. "How's Mon?" I asked, hoping that this would be enough.

For a while, I heard no reply and thought that I had finally managed to crack it. I didn't realise that my hands had been shaking whilst holding the phone, but the shaking intensified and I realised as I had started to feel a little dizzy that I had also been holding my breath.

"I think she's okay," Chandler's voice was louder than I had expected and I realised that I had been out of it and I couldn't remember whether it had been for long or not. "It's really strange, but we haven't really spoken about anything but the kids and just functioning around each other since Monday. I keep on asking if something's up, but all I get is the same answer that's she's totally fine."

I can hear Chandler's concern, and that he also doesn't believe her. Wise move, I think, reminiscing over how they are still so perfect for each other even after 17 years of being together. I contemplate whether it's a good idea just to tell him just now.

I start pacing up and down the alleyway from the spot right outside the door back into the house that I had been subconsciously standing in front of.

"Don't panic," I say, trying to tread very carefully with what I said because I knew Chandler all too well, and couldn't have him be packing and leaving Monica for any reason, especially when he probably needed her most. I take a deep breath in and continue.

"On Monday, Judy was admitted to the ICU in a critical condition," I say, trying to listen out for any sign of a reaction. "Ross also knows, and I don't know who else besides Mike and I."

I still heard nothing, which didn't surprise me, but also didn't help the shred of anxiety that hoped that Chandler was okay. I was just contemplating saying something else, when I heard a shaky, hesitant breath.

"I just wish she'd said.." Chandler said, and I almost had to ask him to repeat it again because it was so quiet. He let out another shaky, exhausted-sounding sigh.

I didn't know what to reply. What shocked me most is that Chandler clearly hadn't been the first person Mon told. Why wouldn't she trust him to tell him the truth when she was clearly not as okay as she was making out? I didn't want to presume anything, so I just decided to say, "Just try and remind her that you're there for her if she wants to talk." I realise afterwards how unsuccessful that would be and hope desperately it wasn't reflected in my voice just now.

"Thanks," Chandler said, entirely unconvinced from the tone of his voice. He had picked up on my uncertainty. "I guess I gotta speak to Mon."

I didn't want to leave Chandler whilst he felt so helpless, but I didn't want to drag out the conversation for longer than he was comfortable with. "I should go," I said.

"Okay," Chandler replied, and the line went dead. I took the phone away from my ear, and looked at the time as I walked back down the alleyway to the door into the kitchen. I had only 45 minutes before work

started to finish getting ready and get the kids out of the house.

Mike looked up from breakfast when I walked in, and immediately shot me a concerned look. "Everything okay, Pheebs?"

I racked by my brain to think of the best way to explain. "Monica didn't tell Chandler," I said, watching Mike's reaction. He looked as confused and surprised as I felt.

"That's seriously odd," Mike said. "I'll take the kids to school if you want."

"Oh!" I exclaimed, caught off guard as I'd been busy puzzling over the situation. "Thanks, babe."

"You're welcome," Mike replied, trying to catch my gaze with a sympathetic smile.

I smiled back, appreciating the sentiment, but definitely not completely feeling it.

Mike slid off of his seat at the breakfast bar, and came over to me. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a hug. It was a comforting reminder that Mike would still be with me whilst we tried to look after Mon and Ross so I wasn't worrying about them alone. I desperately hoped that we would all get through this, because I knew how difficult worrying about losing people very close to you was and would never want my friends to have to go through the same experience as I did.

As if Mike had read my thoughts, as he pulled away and kissed me he said, "We'll all get through this Pheebs."

"I really hope so," I said, as we both walked to the stairs to go up.

A/N: Sorry that this chapter is a little shorter than usual, I just thought this would be a good place to end it. Thank you endlessly after the last chapter in my Roschel fanfic with all the support it got, I'm so happy that you guys are happy with the direction I'm taking the trilogy. I'm pretty sure you can already guess what the next chapter on the Mondler fanfic is going to be, and I am going to say that in terms of emotional content and angst, this is going to be the first of many chapters that I really won't hold back on. With all that being said, I hope that you will enjoy this chapter that is more of a filler, and review and make suggestions for improvements for my writing across all three books. Thank you and I hope that you will also check out the most recent chapter from the Roschel book in particular as the rest of the chapters for all three books won't make sense otherwise, and I also hope that you will generally check them out as whole books as well.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: As I promised, I am back with the 5th chapter in the Phike book within the Familiar Faces Trilogy. Before we get on the story, I just want to give my standard reminder to you guys that I would appreciate it if you checked out the other books within the trilogy and the previous charters before this one in this particular novel. Again, it is also becoming more and more important that you read the chapters for all three books as they are uploaded to make sure that the storyline makes sense as I used a lot of the storylines in the books as events for all the characters and so there are crossovers. I am also back to experimenting with writing chapters from the children within each relationship, and I may also add surprise chapters from other characters within the Friends universe if that is something that you guys are interested in. Just before I wrap this up and get on with the story, I'm so thankful for all the support and encouragement you guys have bene throwing my way with every new chapter, and I hope you will continue to stay as invested in the books as I am when writing them. Please share your thoughts in a review about this chapter, and whether you think you would be interested in chapters from different character's POVs such as Joey or Ben, and don't be afraid to make suggestions for new plot ideas or ways in which I can improve as a writer. However, without further ado, let's get onto the chapter so I don't bore you to death more than I have already:

Chapter 5 – Adeline

"I'm so bored," I said to Chris, who was sitting next to me on the couch.

"Me too," Chris agreed. "The TV's boring now!"

"I don't understand why Mommy said we had to stay in here," I said, feeling very irritated. "Jack and Erica don't have to!"

"It's so unfair," Chris replied, reaching for the TV remote to turn the TV off. "Let's get out of here!"

I jumped up from the couch and followed Chris out into the hallway. We were at Monica and Chandler's house as Mommy and Daddy had wanted to visit them. I wanted to be with Jack and Erica, but Mommy had insisted that we stay in here and watch TV.

I followed Chris as we walked down the hallway, trying to discover where everyone else was.

"Addie!"

I turned around just as Chris did, and saw Jack standing a few metres away from us. "Hey, Jack," I said. "What's going on?"

"I just wanted to check that you guys were doing okay, because neither Erica nor I had seen you and we were a bit concerned," Jack said. "Mom and Dad are still talking to your parents, and I don't think they want to be disturbed so I was getting pretty bored playing Fortnite when I knew you guys were here but I wasn't quite sure whether you were in the spare room as a punishment or something like that."

"Oh, no," Chris said, beating me because I was just about to respond myself. "Mom just sent us in there when we got here, and we've been in there since. She told us to stay there but we both started getting bored."

Jack laughed. "I'd be bored if I was you, so I totally understand! Do you and Erica want to come upstairs with me?"

Chris looked at me, and I nodded that I was fine with that. I just didn't want to be bored anymore so I probably would've said yes to anything. We followed Jack as he led the way to the front door of the house where the staircase was, and followed him up it. Jack turned back to me when we were halfway up the stairs and said, "Jack and I are probably just going to be playing video games, so it's up to you if you still want to join us, but Erica might have more things that you would be interested in. You would still be welcome with us though."

I didn't have to think too hard about it before replying, "I think I'll go with Erica," I said, because video games felt too boring. We reached the landing at the top of the stairs, and I walked straight to the door with 'Erica' on a door plaque on it. The door was slightly open so I walked straight in.

Erica was sitting on her bed, wrapped up in a fluffy blanket. She looked up from the book she was reading when she saw me. "Addie!" she said, standing up and running over to hug me. I hugged her back. She walked back to her bed after the hug, and I sat down beside her.

"What book are you reading?" I said, looking at the black and gold cover on the book that was lying beside Erica.

"I don't think you would be old enough to read it," she said and I felt my heart sink. Most of the books that Mommy thought were old enough for me to read were boring and had all the same stories in them. I was desperate to be able to read books that were for people that were older than me and more interesting, but it was too hard to try and find them because Mommy would almost definitely find out. "But it's about wizards and witches at a school where they learn magic, and fight evil."

"That's so cool!" I say, now desperate to read the book. "What's the name of it?"

"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," Erica replied. "By J.K. Rowling," she added as I started to make a mental note to look in the library at school for the book. I'll have to hide it away from Mom, but that's the last thing I was thinking about right now. I was just hyped that I had managed to finally find a book that actually seemed interesting to me!

I hadn't realised that I had been eyeing the book in awe until Erica said, "Would you like me to read some of it to you? You seem to really love it."

"Yes!" I said, excitement bubbling up inside me. "You're the best person ever!"

Erica laughed. "I do love to make people happy," she said, looking as excited as I felt because she had finally found someone who was as passionate about the book she was reading as she was. "And I'm obsessed with Harry Potter," she added.

Erica got up and walked over to walk-in wardrobe. I couldn't see what she was looking for, but she came back to the bed with a second fluffy blanket. "Take it," she said, throwing it to me so I could then wrap it round me.

Erica sat back down beside me, and opened Harry Potter at the very start rather than where her bookmark was. "Chapter 1 – The Boy Who Lived," Erica said, reading. "Mr and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

{A/N: I just wanted to credit Jo Rowling for the line above as it is an extract from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and I don't own the series so all the copyright credits go to her. That's all for now, so back to the book.}

We read the book until Erica said that the chapter had finished. "What do you want to do now?" Erica asked me.

"I don't know," I said, realising that I wasn't sure what we were allowed to do. "What kind of things can we do?"

Erica sat, thinking. "I could show you some of my favourite songs and we could have a dancing competition or just dance for the sake of it."

"That sounds like such a fun idea!" I replied, feeling excited again but slightly disappointed that I didn't think of something like that myself. Erica stood up and walked over to what looked like a fabric-covered storage compartment set. She came back holding a soft pink portable speaker and her iPhone. She set the speaker down on her bed and there was a beep and a blue light flashed on and off before staying on. A few seconds later, music filled the room.

"Join me on the dancefloor," Erica said, as she led me to the end of her bed where a large rug covered a huge square of the floor.

Erica immediately started dancing, and I tried copy her as I didn't want to embarrass myself or do something wrong by accident. After a while, it became easy to just lose myself in the beat of the music and I relaxed. We didn't even notice a knock on the door until whoever it was behind the door started yelling.

Erica looked at me after I tried to get her attention that someone was calling us, and walked back over to the bed to switch off the speaker.

"Erica! Addie!"

I recognised the sound of Jack's voice, and I knew that from the fact that Erica was rolling her eyes, that she also knew. I started walking towards the door to open it, but Erica beat me to it. Jack and Chris were standing together just outside the door frame.

"What do you want?" Erica asked, in a tone that made it clear she was still a little irritated.

"Mom and Dad just wanted to make sure that you guys knew that we are wanted downstairs," Jack said, with a tone that was slightly gleeful, which I suspected was to annoy Erica.

"Thanks," Erica said, in a deliberately tight-lipped manner. "We'll be down there in a minute." She attempted to shut the door on Jack and Chris, clearly deciding that the conversation was supposed to end right there.

The boys got the message, and Erica turned back to me. "Guess we should go down and see what they want," she said, putting away the speaker and slipping her phone in her pocket. After getting Erica's approval, I put Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone back on her bedside table. Erica took one last look around her bedroom, presumably to make sure that she hadn't accidentally left anything out that she hadn't intended on leaving.

After concluding that everything was as it was supposed to be, she walked over to the door and I followed her as we walked back out onto the landing. Erica shut the door behind her, and then joined me walking down the stairs. I reached the foot of the stairs before Erica did, but I waited for her anyway because I felt bad leaving her.

Erica led the way back down the hallway, stopping at the door of the kitchen at the end. The door was shut, but I could hear a clearly hear voice amongst all the talking that I recognised as Mom's. Erica just pushed open the door rather than waiting to be invited in.

Mom was stood up, leaning against the one part of the counter that was nearest the sink. Dad was sitting at the table with Chandler, whilst Monica was standing against the back of the couch, which marked off where the kitchen diner became a living room. Jack and Chris were sitting on each of the arms of the couch, facing the opposite way to the TV.

"Hi, girls," Monica said, in her usual warm and welcoming tone.

"Hey Mom," Erica replied.

"I'm sure you guys are wondering why we called you and the guys down here," Monica continued saying, looking from Mom to Dad to Chandler, presumably to make sure that it was still a shared agreement.

"It's because there are two things you all should know," Mike took over from Monica, as if he was doing her some kind of favour. "Do you want the good news or the bad news first?"

I glance nervously at Erica. She looks deep in thought, so I just decided that I would wait to hear what the boys say or if Erica decides to say something.

"Bad news first," I turn around and hear Jack say. I hear an audible sharp intake of breath in the awkward silence that came after Jack's answer, and turn to see who it was. Monica has turned away to face the window that was above the sink near where Mom was standing. I looked from Chandler, Mom and Dad. Dad heaved a sad sigh, and I saw him and Mon exchange an anxious glance. Chandler was paying an incredible amount of attention to the floor.

Feeling unsure what to do, I looked back at Erica. She looked as if she was still completely lost in her own thoughts, but her lips looked as if they had been forced together and her posture looked uncomfortably still.

Erica knew about the bad news, I was certain. I was starting to panic, because whatever it was, it must be pretty damn serious. I had to know what it was. Dad decided to put me out of my misery, and started talking again.

"Monica and Ross's Mom is in a part of the hospital where very, very sick people go," he said, stopping abruptly and turning away. He continued on a few seconds later, "and there's no way to know for sure that she's going to go back home."

I glance at Erica. I expected more of a shocked reaction or to at least see some kind of obvious hint of emotion, but she stood completely still, her expression completely unreadable to the point it was like she wasn't even here.

I looked around at the others. Mom looks heartbroken but not shocked. Dad envelopes her in a hug. Monica looks distraught, her far away gaze following nothing. Chandler is still standing as he was before, but more as he's contemplating whether it's worth attempting to comfort Monica. The only one who looks shocked by the news is Jack, who is sitting with his back turned on Chris, with his head in his hands.

I feel bad for Chris, who is sitting awkwardly as if he can't decide whether it's a good idea to attempt to comfort Jack or not. I keep on looking from person to person, willing someone to say something to ease the tension.

"Do we still want the good news?" Dad said, looking from me to Erica to the guys.

I looked at Erica for guidance of what to say, and she nodded. "Yeah," I say, feeling relieved that someone had broken the silence to try and lighten the mood.

"Because of the circumstances," Dad said, "and because Monica and Chandler will appreciate having less pressure put on them by you guys, Jack and Erica, Phoebe and I have offered to have you stay over as much as it's needed."

I have to resist the urge to celebrate because it would be completely inappropriate, but it makes me so happy to know that I get even more time with Erica and Jack. I walk over to Mom and Dad, who embrace me in a huge hug. Dad beckons to Chris, who is now attempting to comfort Jack, but without much success it seems. Chandler has walked over to Jack, and sends Chris away. He comes over to join the hug.

A/N: This seemed like a pretty satisfying way to end the story, and I hope you lot will agree. Just a reminder to check out the rest of the chapters before this one and the other books within the trilogy, and a reminder that I would recommend reading each chapter as it's uploaded to make sure that the story makes sense. Thanks for all the support and ideas that you guys have been sending my way, and I would just ask that you would continue with the reviews and suggestions of what I could add or develop further or get rid of. On top of that, let me know whether I should continue with the children's perspectives and other Friends characters perspectives for coming chapters. That's all for now, so thank you again, and I hope you enjoy and will review!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: This will probably be the final upload that I do for a while, and I don't know even really know when it will be up. As usual, don't be afraid to check out the rest of the chapters in this book, and the other two within the trilogy. Don't forget to also leave your thoughts in a review for me, and make suggestions of improvements or character arcs because they really do help me. That's all I wanted to say, so let's move onto the next chapter:

Chapter 6 – Mike

"Help me set the table, will you?" Phoebe calls to me from where she's standing with a dish of pasta bake on the stove.

I walk through the kitchen doorway, and straight over to the cutlery draw. Phoebe moves start to walk over here, so I say, "Stay over there, and I'll do it."

"Are you sure?" Phoebe asks, "Go see if any of the kids will help."

"Good idea," I say, laughing. I walk back out of the kitchen and walk into the living room. Erica and Addie are sitting together on the sofa watching something on TV. Addie notices me first, and switches uses the remote to turn off the TV. "What are you up to?" I ask, feeling suspicious.

Addie turns to Erica, as if she's trying to get help to come up with a cover story. Erica, however, has registered I am here and seems to know that any attempt to cover themselves up now wouldn't work because they would be incorrectly timed and timing was critical. "Did you want us for something, Mike?" she asked me.

"Actually, yes Erica," I said. "Mom wants you and Addie to help me lay out the cutlery."

"Sure," Erica said, getting up from the sofa. Addie did the same, knowing that she had to be on her best behaviour whilst we had guests over. Mind you, the girls had generally proved much better behaved than the boys, who made no attempts to come away from video games that Jack had bought with him every time they were asked to do so. It had been funny the first few times, but the joke was definitely starting to wear very thin.

Erica and Addie both made their way to the kitchen, and I decided that they would be probably be fine setting the table under Phoebe's instruction. Phoebe would definitely appreciate me getting a head start with trying to pull the boys away from the second of two guest rooms that we had.

I walked up the stairs, and could immediately hear the video game that the boys were playing because the volume was so loud. The door to their room was at the far end of the landing. I walked over to it and saw the door was ajar. I pushed against it, and saw Jack and Chris sitting there exactly as I had expected.

"Good evening," I said, standing at the side of the guest room bed, directly above Jack and Chris as they were sitting against the front of the bed on the carpet.

"Oh, hey Mike!" Jack said, not looking up from his PlayStation controller. That boy did have skills, to be able to hear me perfectly and guess who it was speaking accurately whilst also maintain full control over his character in the game simultaneously.

"Hi Jack," I said, "and hello Christopher, too."

At the mention of his name, Chris looked up. "Daddy, I'm halfway through this round of the game!" he said, clearly correctly guessing the reason I was there was to try and encourage him and Jack to come downstairs.

"No, no, no," Jack said, to my surprise. "We can come finish the game if we need to."

He paused the game, and Christopher scowled at me whilst giving me his full attention. "Mom wants you both downstairs. The girls are already down there," I added, before Chris could use the excuse that the way we were treating the girls was different and unfair compared to the boys.

"We'll be right down there as soon as we can," Jack said, ignoring the fact that Christopher was scowling at him because he clearly wanted him to disagree with me.

I left, confident that Jack was going to be responsible and stick to his word. I made my way back down the stairs and into the kitchen. The girls were sitting at the table, after setting it, and waiting patiently as Phoebe brought the food to the table. Just as I was sitting down after Phoebe insisted that she didn't want any help with the rest of the plates, the boys appeared in the doorway.

"Oh, hey, boys!" Phoebe said, as she moved a dish of peas off of the stove to the table.

"Hey, Phoebe," Jack said, polite as ever. He and Chris sat down at the table, as Phoebe brought the very last of the plates to the table.

"I hope I've made enough food for everyone," she said, as she sat down. I surveyed the table, with its large dishes of vegetables, two large dishes of lasagne, and two garlic flatbreads topped with grated cheese.

"It's more than enough," I reassured Phoebe, who then relaxed.

"So, how are you guys finding staying here?" I asked Erica and Jack, mainly out of curiosity and to also know if there was anything that we could do to improve their time here.

"I'm really enjoying it," Erica said. "Addie's becoming like a sister to me and she seems to be loving having my company too."

Addie gave me a look that confirmed the feeling was mutual, and I couldn't help but shoot quick smile at Phoebe. "What about you, Jack?" I asked.

"It's the same with Chris," he replied.

"Yeah, buddy!" Chris added, high-fiving Jack. Jack laughed at his enthusiasm, but I could tell it was because he found it endearing rather than embarrassing.

"I'm so happy for the both of you," Phoebe said, beaming. "Chandler and Monica are going to be so glad and happy!"

Jack and Erica turned oddly silent at the mention of their names, but I shrugged it off under the assumption it was because they didn't want to go home. Luckily, the phone rang before there could be an awkward silence.

"I'll get it," I said, standing up from my place at the table and walking over to where the nearest handset was. I accepted the call as I walked out into the alleyway beside the house for as much privacy as I thought I would be able to get. "Hello, Mike Buffay-Hannigan speaking."

"Oh, hello Mike," the voice on the other end said. It wasn't familiar, so I asked, "Who is it?"

"Frank Buffay Jr. Jr," the guy replies, sounding considerably younger than I had first noticed. "I'm Phoebe's half-nephew."

I realise that not only is the name familiar, but that I have also met Frank Jr. Jr. before on a few occasions. I start to feel considerably embarrassed, because how could I be so flaky with my own family members? "I'm so sorry that I didn't realise," I say, hoping desperately that Frank wouldn't mind.

"It's fine," Frank says, apparently having picked up on my embarrassment. "Honestly."

I felt more reassured by that. It had saved me from having to explain that I didn't recognise a member of our own family to Phoebe, which I was very much grateful for.

"I was actually calling to ask for a favour," Frank continued. "My first semester of college finishes soon for Thanksgiving, and Mom and Dad decided to go away for the weekend. And Chandler and Leslie are both staying with the families of their boyfriends."

This was quite a big ask, especially as we were basically full to capacity with the twins here already. At the same time, there was no way that I could've turned down family. Phoebe wouldn't have allowed me to, anyway. After all, she loved having a big family and I had come to embrace it more and more since we married.

"We have Monica and Chandler's children here," I start to say, and then realise that Frank might not remember who they are. "Monica and Chandler are friends of Phoebe and I," I add.

"I know," Frank replies, and I take this as cue to be able to continue on with what I was saying.

"But I'm sure that having an extra mouth to feed won't be a problem," I say. "So, were you thinking about just staying just the weekend or longer?"

Frank hesitated. "I don't have to be back until the Tuesday," he eventually replied. "So, could I stay the Monday and then start making my way back to college on the Tuesday?"

"Of course," I say, and then it dawns on me that I should probably still ask Phoebe before agreeing to make plans without her. "I'll make sure that it's completely okay with Pheebs, and get back to you as soon as possible."

"Thank you so much, Mike," Frank replies, and then adds, "Send my love to Phoebe and the others."

"Will do," I reply, saying goodbye before I hang up. I make my way back into the kitchen, where Phoebe has started to collect up the plates as the others are all finished eating or just finishing. "That was Frank Jr. Jr. just on the phone," I say to Phoebe, noticing that she was waiting to hear the outcome of the call.

"Oh!" Phoebe exclaims, clearly surprised. "Did he want anything, or was he just checking up with us?" I could see that she was clearly trying to puzzle out the reason for how sudden for the sudden contact.

"He wanted to know whether we could give him a place to stay during Thanksgiving weekend and the Monday afterwards," I say, trying to gauge Phoebe's thoughts from her reaction. "Alice and Frank Jr are off together, and his sisters are staying with their boyfriend's families."

I could tell that Phoebe was trying to think of a way that it could all work out. "We can make it work, right?" I said, knowing that it would be important to Phoebe for it to be all okay.

"I guess we could turn the living room into a bedroom for a few days," Phoebe said, sounding happy. "And I can just go and get more food from the store if we need it. Call him back immediately, and let him know that we can make it happen."

"I think you should be the one to do that," I said. "After all, you're the one with his number, and I would rather not be in another situation where I almost mistook a family member for a complete stranger."

"Okay, okay," Phoebe said. "All I ask is that you do your best to help me make sure that this all runs smoothly.

"Of course, Pheebs," I say, my arms reaching around Phoebe's waist to hug her. "I haven't let you down once since we got married, so you know that you can trust me."

"I know," Phoebe said, moving closer into the hug. I kissed her, and she started kissing me back. I suddenly remembered that we were in the company of Addie and Chris, and took a step back. At first Phoebe looked a little confused, but then she seemed to realise.

I continued trying to help Phoebe clear away the plates, to make sure that the moment was quickly forgotten. Jack stood up, and started helping on his own accord. I shot him an appreciative glance, and he smiled back as if it was nothing, but he was still happy that he could be of help to Phoebe and I. Phoebe dismissed Chris, Addie and Erica from the table, after saying that there was ice creams in the big freezer in the utility room.

A/N: I hope you guys are as satisfied with ending the chapter here as I am, and that you will choose to check out the chapters before this one and the other books in the trilogy. As always don't forget to leave your thoughts as a review for me and don't forget to leave suggestions for new plot arcs or improvements I could make. Maybe also suggest some things that I should continue that I do well at too. Lastly, I just want to thank my reader's again as you guys really make the difference by being so supportive and nice to me and my work. Please keep it coming! Until next time, have a good day or night or whatever it is in your time zone.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me asking for the reviews to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thanks, and let's move right on to the story:

Chapter 7 – Phoebe

"Pheebs! Can you get the door for me?" Mike called from where he was standing on the landing at the top of the stairs with Addie.

The doorbell had stopped ringing, as if whoever was behind it had realised that I was getting closer to the door to open it. I opened it, and saw Erica and Jack standing in the doorway.

"I wasn't expecting you guys back until tomorrow," I said, a little surprised and taken aback. "What happened? Is everything okay?" I looked them both up and down, and noticed that they looked as if they had had to rush out of the house very urgently for some reason.

Erica and Jack looked from one another, as if they were trying to decide who was going to answer me. In the end, it was Erica. "We got into an argument with Mom and Dad, and Dad said that it was best that we both come here early," Erica said, sounding calm but I could sense shame and hurt in her voice. Jack nodded, as if to confirm what Erica was saying.

"Well, you guys are always welcome so we better sort the suitcases," I said, starting to help Erica and Jack get their suitcases out of the doorway and into the house. "Mike!" I called, as he had just gone back into Addie's bedroom with her. "Can you come back out and help me because the twins are back early and I need help with their stuff!"

Mike's head appeared again on the landing, as he me made his way down the stairs. "Hey, guys!" he said, sounding as jolly as he usually was. "It's good to see you again, even if it is a little earlier than planned!"

The twins nodded in agreement politely, but I knew that their focus was probably elsewhere and small talk probably wasn't a priority. Between Mike and I we were able to settle the twins back into their rooms quickly and efficiently, which particularly surprised me when I realised that it was only just close to nine o'clock in the evening.

"Mike, have you seen the time?" I asked him. He looked at my serious expression, and then down at his watch. I could tell from his next facial expression that he understood exactly what I was trying to get at.

"I'll settle Addie and Chris," he said, "and you can go make sure the twins are okay, if that's good with you?"

I nodded. "Sure," I said, starting to walk back up the stairs to the guest rooms where Jack and Erica had been set up in. Erica's door was slightly ajar, but I knocked anyway, wanting to make sure that there was going to be no possibility that I would end up intruding her alone time. I especially thought she would appreciate it because whatever happened to her and Jack whilst they were away from here seemed to have been pretty stressful, and so she probably wouldn't want someone who she only really knows as one of her Mom and Dad's friends trying to get all up and comfortable with her.

I heard "Come in!" and pushed the door open wider. Erica was sitting on her bed, with her iPad resting on her lap, propped up against the headrest by a massive collection of cushions and pillows.

"Hey," I said, as I sat on the end of the bed. "You okay?" I said, trying to make sure that Erica knew that I was genuinely concerned that she and her brother were okay without sounding completely uncomfortably overbearing.

Erica stopped whatever she was doing on her iPad, and pushed it off her lap onto the bed beside her. "I'm okay, I guess," she said, but I could tell that she wasn't quite feeling as jolly as she was trying to let on.

"Do you want to talk about whatever happened earlier?" I asked, hoping that Erica didn't think I was trying to be nosy or intrusive but that she knew that I just wanted to help her if I could. "I mean, it's totally fine if you don't, I just wanted to make sure I offered…" I trailed off, unsure whether I had given off completely the wrong vibe.

Erica shrugged again, but turned to look at me with an appreciative look on her face. "Mom, Dad, Jack and I had a huge argument where some secrets that really shouldn't have been kept from anyone were discovered and have pretty much made everything awkward at the moment," Erica replied, her expression being one of a solemn kind of sadness that I could tell reflected how she felt about the situation and that she wasn't incredibly comfortable with bringing it up again as a topic of conversation.

"That sounds seriously rough," I added after a small pause because I had a feeling that something like this might have happened and I could tell that it clearly wasn't easy to deal with in the slightest. "Well," I started talking again, hoping that a sudden spark of advice that I just thought of was going to be of help to her, despite the fact that I was feeling pretty helpless at the reality of how little I could actually do to help, "Maybe you should try and talk to your parents tomorrow, or in a day or two. I know them well, and I'm sure that whatever they said wasn't actually something they meant to say."

Even though Erica tried very hard to look appreciative for the advice, I could sense that I had missed the point of what had actually happened because I didn't know the whole situation. "Thanks, Phoebe," she said, smiling. "I really appreciate the advice!"

"You're welcome," I said, unable to get the uncomfortable feeling that had settled as a result of knowing that I hadn't really helped Erica and she was just being polite but trying to hide that behind a smile.

Luckily, she didn't seemed to have being paying enough attention to my expression to have noticed as it appeared to be that she was just trying to get out of the conversation because I knew how uncomfortable she was finding it. My conscience was nudging me and telling me that it was terrible of me to be relieved that she hadn't noticed that I was glad she had given me a scapegoat for what could've been an incredibly awkward moment.

"If it's okay," I said, looking nervously at Erica, "would you mind if I left you here to go and check on your brother?"

Erica nodded. "It's fine," she said. "I'm going to continue unpacking," she added, as I followed her gaze to the open suitcase at the bottom of the bed.

I said goodbye as I left through the door, and found the door to the second guest room that was Jack's for the moment. The door was shut, and so I knocked. I recognised the noise to be part of a theme tune from one of Jack's video games, which helped me realise that he probably wouldn't have heard me so there was no point in knocking again and looking like a complete idiot because of it. I pushed the door completely open and let myself in, closing it behind me.

I sat on the edge of one side of the bed and decided to wait and see how long it would take before Jack noticed that I was here. He was propped up against the end of the bed, sitting on the carpet with the cord to his PlayStation controller in his lap almost as if it was some kind of umbilical cord.

After sitting for what felt like three years, I started to feel bored and decided to just jump in with announcing my presence to him.

"Hey," I said, as I adjusted my sitting position on the carpet beside Jack. "You okay?" I said, louder because I remembered that he probably would struggle to hear me properly.

Jack realised I was talking and used his controller to pause the TV. "I guess," he shrugged. I recognised this reaction from his sister, so I was not surprised but wasn't massively pleased at all either because of how the last conversation I had tried to have had gone.

"Just let me know if there is anything I can do," I said, this time not trying to find out what happened and hoping that leading by this approach would provide effective damage control to make sure that what followed wouldn't be awkward, "and Mike and I will do our best to be of help to both you and Erica."

"Thanks," he said, after a few minutes of contemplative silence between us. "I really appreciate it," he added and I could tell that he really meant it. It made me happy, because I would do anything for Chandler and Monica especially in their current situation, and generally I loved taking care of people so it was a win-win situation.

"You're welcome," I said, happily. "I'll make my way out, but if you need anything, be sure to ask Mike and I and we'll try our best to be of help to you."

"Thank you so much, Phoebe," Jack said, as I backed out of his room.

"You're welcome again," I said, closing the door behind me and starting to walk downstairs. I made my way to the kitchen diner down the corridor, hoping that Mike might be in there because I was suddenly craving his company.

As I had hoped, Mike was sitting on the sofa, cradling a mug of decaffeinated coffee. "There's one for you beside the kettle," he said as I walked in. I walked over to the kettle, swiped up the mug and walked over to the sofa to get comfortable next to Mike.

"You okay, baby?" he asked, looking at me with his usual affectionate grin that I knew meant that he was happy.

"Yeah," I replied, returning his gaze with a smile of my own. "Just tired after such an eventful day."

Mike draped his arms around my shoulder, as if he knew that it would help me to feel more relaxed. "But you made it through," he said, "and like a real champion, if I do say so myself."

I smiled again, because Mike really did know exactly how to send me into a melting mush. I love you so much," I said. I then had a realisation about a worry that had been bugging me that I desperately needed the answer for. "Do you think the twins will be okay? Do you think Monica and Chandler are okay?" I asked, realising that I was far more worried than I had thought I was as I spoke.

"We can do our best to make sure the twins are okay," Mike replied, as if he was desperately trying to ease my worries, "but I don't know about the others. There's honestly not much we can do, and it's probably too early to attempt to talk to them about what's gone on."

I stopped to think for a moment before something clicked in my mind and I knew what we had to do next. "I've got to call Monica and Chandler," I started saying, suddenly realising that they must be tearing their hair out trying to figure out where their son and daughter were. "They'll want to know where Jack and Erica are, and we both know that Monica in particular would not be taking this well right now, so the sooner we do something about it, the better."

"Okay, okay," Mike said, sending my phone skidding across the table toward me. "I'm going to start winding down for the night so I'll see you upstairs later," he said, as he got up from the table and came over to quickly hug me before walking out.

I dialled Mon's number, and she picked up on the first ring. It didn't surprise me; she was usually always good at picking up calls and staying organised like that.

"Hello?" she sounding, sounding exactly as tense and flustered as I had expected her to sound.

"It's Phoebe," I said, about to launch into the speech that I had mentally rehearsed to reassure Monica that we had her babies, as I knew that she would be affected by it particularly badly.

"Thank god!" Monica exclaimed, so loudly that I could still hear her at full volume despite it being over the phone. "Are Jack and Erica with you?" she added, immediately sounding a lot less panicked as she had been initially and relieved.

"Yeah," I nodded, even though I know that she couldn't see me. "We've actually just settled the kids to bed, otherwise I would've let you speak to them but I get the feeling that they want to speak to you on their own terms so that's another reason why I decided that I would just let you know myself."

"Thank you so much, Pheebs," Mon replied. "Chandler's been driving me mad, because he said that the twins were safe but he wouldn't tell me where they were because he wanted me to trust me as we got into an argument about that as well, so I thought I would call the first place that I thought they would be."

"I hope you and Chandler manage to sort things out," I said, "but they were here and whilst they are with Mike and I, we both will our best to ensure that they stay as safe as possible."

"I know you will," Monica said, in a tone that I figured meant I had been doubting whether she thought I was a good parent or not. "Thank you so much again, because I really do trust you and Mike with the kids and so does Chandler."

"I know," I said, hoping that my tone would reassure Monica that I wasn't offended. "It's nice that we even still talk after so many years of being so close," I added, suddenly feeling particularly glad that most of the original gang were so close still.

"Yeah," Monica said, in agreement. "You know that I wouldn't let you guys forget me, right?" she added, half joking and half serious.

"I know," I replied, nodding again. Monica was still very much the glue that held the group together, and that was something that I was eternally grateful for. If we didn't have someone like Monica to be the 'Mom' of the group, Ross and Rachel would have torn each other's throats out more times that I would rather count, Chandler and Joey would be lonely and I probably wouldn't even be part of the group because Ross would've definitely made me leave after trying to persuade me that everything I believed in was horse crap and fake news.

"I heard there was some kind of argument between you, Chandler and the twins," I said, unsure whether now was completely the wrong time to bring it up but strongly suspecting that it possibly wasn't. "Is everything okay now?"

There was a moment of silence, in which I started to definitely think that it had been the wrong time and was thinking of the best way to rescue myself.

"I don't know, honestly," Monica replied, in a much quieter tone then she had been previously using. "The twins haven't spoken to me since they left, and Chandler and I have just put up an imaginary wall up against the situation for the moment. So I guess that means it's okay." I could almost see her shrug after the end of the sentence.

I didn't want to pry any further into the situation, so I decided that a change of topic was the best course of action. "Do you and Chandler have any plans for Thanksgiving?" I asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," Monica replied. "Probably something like going to a restaurant or ordering in food and watching a film, especially since the children are out of our hair, because usually we do a family meal."

I nodded. "Frank Jr. Jr. is joining us, since Chandler and Leslie are both staying with their boyfriends' families'," I said, "so we're a bit full to the brim in terms of guests this year, but it's nothing that we can't plan for and make it work."

"Thank you so much again for having them," Monica said, sounding as if she genuinely appreciated it. "It's just nice to have something less to worry about, especially with the situation with Mom right now, and it also means that Chandler and I get a chance to have some more quality time together, which it has been quite a while since we last got a proper opportunity for."

"Yeah," I agreed. "And you're welcome," I added. I could hear someone calling for Monica in the background of the call.

"Chandler wants to talk to me right now," Monica said, hastily. "I'm so sorry, Pheebs, but send me love to both lots of twins and Mike."

"Talk soon then, Mon," I said, "and will do."

I hung up, and started walking out of the kitchen down to the stairs. I started climbing up them, with the intention of going straight to bed as I was completely exhausted. Mike was already lying in bed when I opened the bedroom door, with an open book against his chest. I changed quickly, and joined him. He kissed me on the cheek when I had finally found a comfortable position on my side of the bed, and I felt myself smile because I was eternally grateful that I had someone as adorable and sweet as Mike as my husband. There were no words in that moment that could've truly described exactly how much I love him.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 8 – Mike

"I'm just going to assume that you've got everything," I said to Phoebe, as we got into the front two seats of the car.

"Good call," Phoebe nodded happily, as she did up the strap of the seatbelt.

I started backing into the road and drove out of our cul-de-sac to the roundabout that had the local grocery superstore on one side and a gas station on the other. We took the road that led to the main motorway, which was diagonally between the grocery store and the gas station. Phoebe and I had stayed up last night, attempting to figure out what we could do with 4 kids that didn't end up in having them all on screens all day.

Phoebe had come up with the idea of taking them to a Water Park that she had heard work colleagues talking about, and I had been more than happy to agree to go. Luckily, the kids had shared our enthusiasm, and both Phoebe and I were both glad to know we would get some quality time alone together whilst the kids entertained themselves.

Usually, we don't have much time to ourselves when we get out as a family, as Chris and Addie are still too young to be allowed to go on rides themselves without us worrying. Therefore Phoebe and I were planning on trying to make the most of the day with lots of coffee at the café and going on a few rides, as I wanted to challenge her to go on as many rides as we could manage to.

Luckily the journey wasn't too long as I had started to fear that having four children in one car all at once was going to be considerably more hectic than I had first realised, and soon enough we were checking into the Park.

"Now, you guys can go wherever you want now we're inside the Park," I said, watching Chris and Addie's faces light up as they realised exactly what I meant. "But please make sure that you stay with at least one of Erica or Jack."

Both sets of twins nodded back at Phoebe and I. Phoebe helped both of our kids to fix their wristbands to have full access to the Park whilst I attempted to locate the nearest coffee shop from the free site map that we had been gifted at the kiosk to pay for parking. The other two waited patiently, but I could tell that they wanted to get going and were just waiting because they wanted to be polite. I appreciated this but felt that it was a little unfair on them.

Phoebe handed Jack a map that I hadn't realised she had also been given and then sent all four kids off to run loose around the park. She turned back to me, and asked, "Where do you want to go first?" I could tell that she realised I had been studying the map, yet I still had no real clue what I wanted to do after the necessary option of going to get coffee.

"Let's make sure we get some coffee because I have a definite suspicion that we're going to need lots of it if we are going to make it through today," I said, laughing.

Phoebe laughed with me. "Agreed," she said, leaning into give me a quick kiss.

We walked together towards where the café was located, according to the map. Luckily when we got there, it wasn't too busy, which was understandable since it was 10.30am in the morning. Almost all of the customers were parents like us, either alone or with younger children who weren't old enough to access the rides.

Phoebe and I sat a table that was tucked away in a corner of the café seating area, surrounded by mostly empty tables. "What are you feeling like ordering in terms of drinks?" I asked Phoebe, as I searched through my jacket pockets for my wallet.

"I think I'll go with a Chai tea," Phoebe answered, searching through her handbag for what I assumed was for her purse.

"Don't worry about paying me, Pheebs," I said, trying to reassure her. "Think of it as an early Thanksgiving treat, and a reminder of how much I love you."

Phoebe grinned happily at this. "You really are the best man I've ever set eyes on," she said, with pure adoration in her eyes that melted my heart. "Thank you so much."

"You have no reason to thank me," I said, standing up with my wallet in hand to walk over to the cafeteria area to place our orders.

I was second in the line at the till, which allowed to have the time to choose between a regular latte and a Chai tea. In the end, I ordered the regular latte, as I had a feeling this wouldn't be the last hot drink I ordered here today. I was a little shocked at how high the bill for both hot drinks was, but then again this was an attraction, and so they often tended to be massively overpriced when it came to the food they offer. Realistically, this also probably wouldn't be our only astronomically large bill after today, so the drinks were really just the beginning.

I joined Phoebe back at the table, after mentioning our table number, courtesy of an emergency text from Phoebe as I hadn't paid attention to it before. She looked up from scrolling through her phone as I sat down.

"I can't stop thinking about how much Chandler and Monica are probably appreciating not having to look after the twins all the time," Phoebe said, sounding genuine happy for them and if a little envious. "I hope they know that we would do this for them anytime they needed it."

"I'm sure they do," I said, smiling reassuringly back at Phoebe. "I mean, they've known you long enough to know that being a kind, helpful and caring person is something that comes completely naturally to you, so I'm sure they would expect nothing less."

"I really hope so," she said, smiling back at me.

A waitress came over, with a kettle and small jug of milk and a coffee mug with a saucer and sugar cube dish laden on a tray along with another plate which had the receipt on and the table number placeholder. She set the tray down and asked, "Anything else you need?"

I shook my head, and she disappeared back behind the cafeteria counter. I turned back to Phoebe, as I took my mug off of the tray and started spooning a couple of sugar cubes into the latte and watching them dissolve as I stirred.

"Are you sure that having Frank Jr. Jr. over as well as Jack and Erica won't be too much of a stretch on Thanksgiving?" I asked, deciding that it was finally a good idea to voice a concern that had been bugging me ever since I agreed on our behalf that it would be fine for him to stay.

"Yeah," she nodded back as she poured herself another mug of tea. She usually downed tea and coffee quickly, and almost had some kind of talent in it which I had come to realise over the years of our marriage. "I can get in extra food when I do the usual big shop that I had already planned to do ahead of next weekend, and we can use the spare room as the couch can become a bed, don't you remember?"

I had forgotten that it could fold out into a bed, as I hadn't been as involved in the interior design within the house as Phoebe had been when we moved in, and clearly it had slipped my knowledge. I hoped that Frank Jr. Jr. would understand that we were strapped for space and the spare room was the best we could do given the circumstances, as I knew it was a bit of a crappy option especially when it was to house a guest, who was not only a guest but also a family member.

"Okay," I said, trusting Phoebe's judgement. "If you're 100% sure." I added, "You know that I will do everything I need to help you out if you need it, right?"

"Of course," Phoebe replied, looking a little shocked that I had even asked the question. "You've been nothing but helpful for over 14 years, so I'm pretty certain I would've realised that by now." She laughed good-humouredly after she finished talking.

I couldn't help but laugh too. I was genuinely shocked every day when it hit me that I had been able to marry someone as gracious and humble as Phoebe, and that she still seemed to love me as much as she had when we were still in the honeymoon period of being a new couple, in both our wedding honeymoon and when we started seriously dating.

We finished our drinks whilst chatting more about many different topics together. It was just nice to finally just be able to sit and talk without any responsibilities eating into the back of our minds, and be 100% genuine and honest with each other in such a carefree manner and setting.

"Where do you want to go first?" I asked, finally regaining a feeling of composure after laughing from Phoebe's many jokes that she had decided to share with me.

"What about one of the rollercoasters?" Phoebe asked me, her eyes lighting up with childish excitement.

"I don't see why not," I shrugged, happily. It had been long enough since we had eaten breakfast that I wasn't worried about speed-induced nausea, and I wanted to make the most of the caffeine high that both of us had embarked on whilst it lasted and didn't fizzle out to pure adrenaline, which was considerably less stable.

We walked out together, holding each other hands, fully embracing the married couple mentality. We got many adoring looks from other couples, both accompanied by children and without, as we navigated our way from the café to the specifically designated rollercoaster section of the park.

There were about four different rollercoasters all open, and populated by customers waiting in lines to ride them. I decided to try and figure out which rollercoaster had the shortest line as, although both of us were probably going to want to get on all of the rides, I didn't fancy the prospect of having to wait another half hour when we could be having the level of fun that I felt we deserved to experience sooner.

I made a quick judgement, and guided Phoebe quickly and strategically towards the end of the snaking line. Luckily, it seemed that I had been right about the speed at which the queue was moving, as it wasn't long before we had moved a good four or five places up the line despite having only just joined it. Sure enough, the next thing we knew was the ride attendant just briefing us on the rules of the rollercoaster before moving out of the way to allow us to climb the steps up to the ramp where we boarded the sections of the rollercoaster from.

Phoebe sat on my left side, and we both pulled down the safety seat belt in a joint test of strength. The ride attendant's assistant colleague didn't bother coming over to help us as we were clearly adults, but instead flashed us a thumps up. I nodded in acknowledgement, and he moved onto helping the two teenagers behind us.

I turned to Phoebe, and smiled as my way of conveying how excited I was that we were on this ride together. She returned it, and I could see the realisation of what she had just signed up for hit her just as I heard the attendant's assistant yell 'Go!' at the attendant, who had gone into the small hut on the boarding ramp, and felt us lurch forward.

The more speed we picked up, the harder people seemed to scream. Phoebe was already screaming like a banshee, but I was just sitting there, casually soaking in the atmosphere and other people's screams. I might be one of the calmest riders at the moment, but I had a feeling when the ride really started picking up speed and we encountered the couple of sudden drops on the track and the cartwheel-shaped loop that I would be very different.

By the time we had to attempt to make off the ride and back into reality without collapsing from simultaneous adrenaline rushes and dizziness spells, I was feeling elated but also considerably more exhausted than I had anticipated. In stark comparison, Phoebe looked as if she had already gained full composure again, and was more than ready to go on the rest of the rides.

"How are you already so put together after all that?" I watched in disbelief, while also trying and apparently failing to desperately get my breath back.

"It takes skills, babe," Phoebe said, a triumphant note in her voice, as she watched me fighting in vain to recover from what had been as much if a scarring experience as it had been absolutely thrilling.

I rolled my eyes, but flashed her a small grin to know that I was only joking and wasn't really annoyed. When I was satisfied that I wasn't going to pass out from breathlessness, I turned to Phoebe, who started immediately walking over to the next ride to the one we had just been on.

The line for this one barely existed compared to how it had been when we had first seen it, so we joined the end and quickly boarded it. I decided this time to make sure that I was holding onto the seatbelt so hard that I could feel my fingers start to ache. I would've stopped holding them so hard, however I didn't fancy the other option, which was almost certain death if I wasn't careful about staying upright and stable.

Luckily, thanks to that precaution, this time the ride seemed to take less of an extreme toll on my body and senses. In fact, I was actually mainly revved up to go another round on the rollercoaster. Phoebe and I immediately boarded the line to the next rollercoaster along after the current. "Let's make this the last before going on something else," I said to Phoebe, hoping that she would be okay with the fact that I didn't fancy burning out too quickly on the massive rollercoasters and that ruining the prospects of us going on another one later.

A/N: Here we are with the end of this chapter. I wanted to make sure that I thanked my friend who suggested the premise for this chapter (you will know who you are, I hope) and hope that you liked what I did with it! In addition, here's the usual reminder from me to you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 9 – Addie

"This is so fun!" I shrieked, as I collided with the rear of Chris' go kart.

I was at the go karts track with Chris, Erica and Jack. I could tell that Mom and Dad didn't really want us to go on the karts, but they seemed to trust Erica and Jack enough to finally let us. We had played one round where we had teamed up with each other but had decided that playing solo was more fun. Chris had managed to hit me many times, but I wasn't willing to give up easily and had managed to observe some of the other players to pick up some of their tactics to use against him.

Just as I started my third lap around the track, I spotted Erica's kart that had accidentally ended up a little off track and started making a beeline for it. There were no other drivers in my way, luckily, so I hit the kart with maximum impact and sent Erica spinning right into an oncoming kart. I saw her turn back and see me. She must have realised that I was the guilty one, because she proceeded to flip me off.

I watched her try and steer her go kart, presumably in my direction, and decided to make a quick getaway. However, I had been so focused on getting away quickly that I hadn't prepared myself for the impact that hit me as another go kart rammed into me. Before I could even start to make an attempt to move out of the way of future damage, yet another kart rammed into me and sent me spinning right into the makeshift tyre boundaries that encircled the track.

Despite having the safety bar down, this didn't stop the fact that my neck cricked back onto the headrest of the seat as my back hit the rest of it. Everywhere started to ache with the impact, and I felt a little winded, but I knew that I had to keep on going otherwise I would just be hit again. I managed to steer my way back onto the track, and follow a path that was definitely clear for the moment.

When the foghorn sounded to announce that our time was up, I joined the others as we exited the track. I was still aching from the hits I had taken during the time we had spent on the karts, but particularly from the last round as it had been brutal. Luckily, I didn't seem to be the only stiff one.

"Are you okay?" Jack asked, and I realised I must have been wincing as I walked or something without realising.

"I'll be fine," I said, as a sharp pain that was in my shoulder throbbed again. I must have winced again, because Jack looked far from convinced.

"If you want to sit down for a while, we can," he said, with a concerned expression on his face.

"No," I said, as I tried to figure out how best to brace myself so I would end up being in the least pain possible. I was desperate not to hold anyone up, and was sure that when we got on one of the rides that you could just sit on without moving too much that I would be fine.

We ended up boarding a ride that was a huge swing that swayed from side to side. It looked relaxing, but Jack and Erica both said that it was far from that, especially if you were scared of heights or falling. Luckily, I was scared of neither, so I was just excited to try out the ride itself.

I ended up taking the seat beside Erica, and Chris by Jack, as this had been the arrangement that we had gone by since we got here and just worked very well for all of us. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride, as when you shut your eyes, the swinging and the breeze whipping past your face made me feel like I was flying. Erica was screaming beside me, but I assumed this was just because she was having fun as she didn't sound particularly scared.

"What do you want to go on next?" Jack asked Chris, Erica and I.

Chris and I shrugged, as neither of us particularly seemed to mind as long as we were making the most of the freedom that we had whilst we were here.

"I guess we could go on one of the rollercoasters again…" Erica started to say. Both Chris and Jack started to nod enthusiastically. Erica looked at me, as if she was trying to gauge how I felt about the idea myself, and I nodded. "Race you there!" she concluded, grabbing my arm so we could run together.

The guys ended up getting there quicker than we did, but they had made a space for us to join us in the queue. Trying desperately not to attract looks from other customers waiting in the line, we both managed to sneak our way in.

I turned my gaze to the rollercoaster itself. I had seen it from a distance before we joined the line, but somehow it looked much larger and more threatening up close. I started to feel butterflies fluttering around my stomach as the line progressed forwards. Just as I was really starting to regret joining the queue, our turn to board the ride came.

I sat on the side of the cart that was furthest away from the platform to board it from, and it dawned on me how the ride was about to start and I was not ready for it at all. Erica sat beside me, and turned to me with an elated and adrenaline-fueled grin. Jack and Chris boarded the cart directly behind us, and the foghorn signalled the beginning of the ride.

Our cart lurched forward and we started crawling along the track. I knew that we were about to pick up speed and that this was going to be the slowest that the ride was ever going to get, but there was no time to attempt to calm myself down. As I had predicted, we started picking up speed as we approached the first drop.

I screamed as I felt us dip and I was thrown a few metres out of my seat. I grabbed on tighter to the safety bar, hoping that this might prepare me better for the impact. If it helped at all, it proved minimal as I spent the vast majority of the rest of the ride screaming as if someone was trying to kill me. When the cart finally started slowing down back into the platform where we had first boarded the ride, Erica turned to me.

"Did you see the camera hidden in the trees as we went round?" she asked me. She then looked as if she was trying to stifle a laugh, so it clicked that she must have seen my surprised response.

"No," I said, now terribly nervous to see them. I knew that I would look pretty awful, probably somewhere between someone who was being stabbed to death and some kind of screaming banshee with terrible hair.

I hadn't noticed it before, clearly, but there was a stand at the entrance to the ride that was playing photos taken from the ride in a slideshow. Erica immediately walked over there, beckoning me over as I walked to join her.

I saw immediately that it was our ones on the screen, and looked away, cringing. The blurred glimpse that I had got before looking away was more than enough for me.

"You don't look that bad!" Erica said, trying to console me as she had clearly noticed how I was feeling. "Trust me, I look like I have just walked through a hedge backwards, no joke! At least you look as if you are actually having fun, and not just about to die from some horrible death!"

I appreciated Erica saying that, but there was still no way that she would be able to persuade me to look at them properly. She seemed to realise this after a few more minutes, and guided me to the next rollercoaster. "Do you want to go on here?" she asked.

I could tell that she was hoping that I would say yes, so I nodded. I hoped that the more times I went on the rollercoasters, the less scared I would feel and start being able to enjoy them more. This proved true, as after the current one, I was more than excited to go on the next.

The line was short, so we were able to board the ride quickly. Whilst we were waiting for the other riders to get on, Erica pointed to the cart two ahead of us. I took a closer look at the back of the couple's heads, and realised that it was Mom and Dad. There was no way that they would be able to tell that we were also on this ride, which made me feel glad because I didn't want them to start worrying about me just as I was starting to really have fun.

After that ride was over, Erica turned to me. "Do you want to stay here or go somewhere else?" she asked, clearly acknowledging that I probably wasn't overly thrilled about Mom and Dad being so close to us.

"Somewhere else," I answered, without hesitation.

Erica and I started walking back to the café area to get to the nearest site map, as she had accidentally lost the paper copy we had. Whilst she was studying the map, I got side-tracked by a sign over the doorway to a building that I hadn't noticed standing there before when we had been in this area. The sign was a badly-timed pun, but it was advertising an arcade room.

"Let's go in there!" I said, grabbing Erica's arm to pull her away from the map and towards the door.

"I guess I also have cash with me," Erica said, thoughtfully. I could tell that I was convincing her, and had to try really hard to not celebrate on the spot.

Once we got inside, I ran straight to one of money dispensing machines. I looked behind me to check if Erica was with me, but didn't see her until I spotted her standing over at a hatch in the back corner. Just as I was considering walking over to join her, she came back holding two plastic tubs.

"This is for our money," she instructed, handing me one and starting to look through her handbag. She handed me a couple of dollar notes, and said, "Go mad!"

I ran straight over to the nearest money dispensing machine, and started filling up my box. Armed with a full tub, I started to make my way around the room.

The first game to catch my eye was a line of back-to-back cent machines. It became clear to me that the aim of the game was to insert as many cents into the three drop slots to move the money and prizes on the ledge into the collection slot in the bottom of the machine.

In the first machine, I saw that there was a set of flip flop erasers as one of the prizes, and I immediately started dropping cents down the slot to try and win them. After about 10 attempts, I had managed to get quite a lot of cents, but was not much closer to getting the flip flops.

I decided to try and find Erica instead of wasting any more money. It didn't take much time to find her, as she was playing a game where she sat and had to press buttons to play a tune for tickets. She seemed to have been playing it the whole time I was trying to win the flip flops, as she already had a long chain of tickets snaking out from the dispenser.

"You're so good at this," I said, realising that I was tempted to have a go myself.

"Thanks," Erica said, barely looking up from the game because I knew that she had to pay close attention to it to keep doing so well. "You should give it a go."

"I will," I said, sitting down in the seat next to hers and slotting in the money that I needed to activate the game.

The game actually was as easy as Erica made it look, but I understood that you really had to pay attention otherwise, no matter how good you were, you would almost definitely miss a note and lose the whole round.

By the time Erica said she was well and truly done playing, I had managed to rack up such a long line of tickets that they had started to form a pinwheel on the floor. Erica had told me that you cashed the tickets in for a prize of the total value of your tickets, so we both walked over to where Erica had initially bought the money tubs to see what was on offer.

From the receipt that that man at the hatch had given me in exchange for my tickets, I could see that I had won 12,656 tokens throughout the game. When I looked around at the prizes on sale, with a small sign beside each of how many tokens you could exchange it for, I realised that the number of tokens were worth much, much more than I thought they would be.

I decided that I was going to buy a pot of slime in four neon colours, three packets of chocolate buttons and a tube of glow-in-dark glow sticks. Erica ended up cashing all of hers in for sweets and chocolate, which I definitely couldn't blame her for doing. She must have seen me gazing at her vast collection longingly because she said, "Don't worry – I'll share this with you and the boys."

I tried hard to tone down my excitement over this, but failed miserably. Luckily, Erica didn't seemed fazed by this at all and actually seemed to think it was cute. "Shall we go back to meet the others?" she said, leading me to the door to exit the arcade.

I suddenly realised that we had forgotten about the boys, and that was what Erica had meant when she said 'the others'. I had thought no much more of it than that she must have been referring to Mom and Dad, but it actually made a lot more sense now this way.

"Do you know where they'll be?" I asked, starting to panic a little.

"Probably back at the rollercoasters," Erica said authoritatively, starting walk back in the direction of the rollercoasters whilst I followed. "If not, we can let Phoebe and Mike know, and they can help us."

I wasn't entirely happy with the possibility of having to tell Mom or Dad, because they would probably start going all over protective on Chris and I, and then we would have even less freedom than we already get. At the same time though, Mom and Dad still would be the best people to tell if Chris and Jack were seriously lost and we couldn't find them, and they would find out anyway so there would be no point in trying to pretend everything was fine either.

A/N: Here's the end to yet another chapter and just a friendly reminder to you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 10 – Phoebe

"Is there anything I can do to help you prepare for Thanksgiving?" Mike asked me.

"Not an awful lot more," I said, surveying the mound of shopping that had just arrived from our weekly shop. The whole table was covered and stacked up high, which had surprised me greatly at first until I remembered that we did have three other guests this year, so we were bound to end up with needing more food as a result.

"Do you want help with putting everything away?" Mike asked, getting up from where he was leaning against the counter and beginning to sift through the shopping.

I nodded, realising that I could actually really do with another hand to help. I dealt with the food that was in bags to be kept cold and then started helping Mike sift through the rest. We did this in silence until I realised that it was going to feel less monotonous if I attempted to make conversation.

"Honestly, how are you feeling about the coming days?" I said, hoping that Mike would feel that he was able to give his honest opinion from my relaxed tone.

"Apart from the fact that I've started to realise just how busy we'll end being," Mike said, wincing. "I'm feeling pretty happy about it." He added a smile afterwards, that I could tell was being completely genuine.

I heaved a sigh of relief, half-joking, half-seriously. It was already going to be a stretch having the twins, and then my nephew well. Neither Monica nor Chandler had said whether they wanted to spend any of Thanksgiving with them, because I know that Chandler was planning to take Mon out for dinner, but that was in the evening. I meant to drop them a call if neither of them called me to let me know.

"Has Frank been in contact with you since the call?" Mike asked me, clearly asking to know when and if we would need to pick him up from the airport.

I nodded. "The last I heard is that he was buying tickets to fly to JFK for Thursday," I said.

"That doesn't give him an awful lot of time to settle in," Mike said, brow furrowing.

"I know," I said, realising in dismay that it was another thing that was going to be upon the pile of stresses for the weekend. "We'll find a way for it to work," I said, trying to reassure myself as much as I was trying to do so for Mike.

"I trust you," Mike said, looking right into my eyes with a level of sincerity that melted my heart because I knew he really did trust me.

"Thanks," I said, trying not to tear up with affection as I arranged the packets of fresh vegetables in one of the very bottom compartments of the fridge. "I really love you so much."

"I love you too," Mike replied with the same affection in his tone, as he finished sorting through the last of the food still on the table.

I took over from Mike with the rest of the food so he could take a seat on the couch. I put away the rest of the shopping and joined him. He had picked up one of the magazines that were always left on the coffee table as no one could be bothered to tidy them away after reading them but put it down as I sat.

"Do you want some coffee?" I asked, feeling as if it was wrong if we didn't have some kind of hot drink whilst we relaxed.

"I don't see why not," he said, standing up and walking over to the cafetiere before I could stop him to offer to do it myself.

Whilst Mike was over at the coffee machine, I picked up the TV remote and started scrolling through the channels to see if anything that both Mike and I would find interesting was on. My search proved unsuccessful, as all I could find for day time TV was cooking shows, trashy reality TV and random shows about decorating homes.

Luckily, I didn't have to wait long to be entertained again because Mike came back over and we continued to talk.

"Is there anything you want to watch before we have to start adulting again?" he asked, clearly unaware of the fact that I had just been searching for something myself.

"There's nothing good on TV," I said, "so should I go look through our DVD collection and randomly choose as I feel like it?"

Mike nodded, and I placed down my cup of coffee to go to our other living room, where we kept all of our DVDs.

"Oh, hi Mom," I heard, as I entered through the living room's ajar door. Erica and Addie were already in here, watching something that I didn't quite recognise on the TV screen. I considered asking what it was, but decided the better of it because they both seemed quite happy and there would be no real reason to disturb them.

I scanned the bookshelves full of DVDs for the first ones to stand out to me. I ended up deciding on four different ones but had trouble narrowing it down any further than just two. After minutes of trying to make a final decision, I decided to just take both through and get Mike to try and help me decide.

"What did you end up getting?" Mike asked, as he leaned over the coffee table to get a better look at them.

"Definitely Maybe and Love Actually," I said. I had seen Love Actually many times, particularly because of the ending as it felt as if I was in a fairy tale every time I watched it. Definitely Maybe, on the other hand, had been gifted to Mike and I at some point by a family friend never to be seen again. Still, I was very much curious to know what happened so it was a strong contender.

"I think we should go for Definitely Maybe as we've seen Love Actually so many times that I think a change would be good," Mike said, and I agreed.

Reading the blurb as I walked over to the DVD player, I concluded that it definitely sounded like a feel-good, romantic pick me up that Mike and I could lose ourselves in in the midst of all the excitement and stresses of the coming week. The opening credits started rolling as I cosied up to Mike, pulling the fluffy couch blanket to fully cover the both of us.

Neither of us moved again until the end credits started rolling, and I looked down at my watch to see the time. It was already 6 o'clock in the evening, which meant that I was behind in preparing and cooking dinner. "I need to start dinner," I said, feeling flustered because I didn't need something to already be spiralling out of my control ahead of everything that was about to start.

I walked over to the refrigerator, selecting what I would need to start cooking. Mike put away the DVD and I thanked him as he made his way to the living room to return the DVD back to its original home.

Before I started properly cooking, I hooked up the family iPad into its dock, and it started playing my YouTube mix.

I bought an extra large saucepan of fusilli pasta to boil, whilst also stirring a frying pan of bacon and onions with sauce. Whilst the sauce and pasta simmered, I laid out two tomato and mozzarella flat bread pizzas on an oven tray and started the oven timer going once they were in. I had preheated before I even started measuring out the ingredients, which I was now very grateful for as I was starting to feel much less stressed now everything seemed to be coming together.

Mike had taken up camp on the sofa when he came back from putting the DVD back away. I called to him, "Can you let the kids know that dinner is very nearly done and they need to start washing their hands and getting down here?"

He nodded, and left the room on command.

I drained the pasta through a colander, and balanced the colander in the saucepan. I gave the frying pan one last stir, and turned off the hob. The oven timer sounded as just as I was choosing six clean plates and setting them in a stack on the table. I set the frying pan and saucepan down on two free place mats at the centre of the table, and took the flatbreads out of the oven. I switched off the oven, and carefully transferred the flat breads onto a plate which I added to the centre of the table. Putting what was left of the washing so far from cooking beside the sink, I started to sort through the pile of cutlery on the table to assign a full set to each plate.

The kitchen door was shoved open and Chris rushed in, closely followed by Jack. Chris braced himself against the counter before he skidded across the floor, panting heavily in a clear attempt to get his breath back.

"What's going on I ask?" I ask, shocked by this very sudden burst of energy.

"Turns out neither boy could resist a competition," Mike said as he walked in, winking at me. I smiled back, partly in amusement and partly in gratitude for getting the kids to come without a fight.

"I win! I win! I win!" Chris chanted loudly, gleefully taunting Jack, who looked as if the competition was far from over.

"Not so fast, tiger," Jack said, sounding calm and collected, but with determination plastered all over his expression.

"Fill me in on the rules," I instructed Mike, trying to get to the bottom of what the conversation was to be able to fairly mediate and decide who should be crowned the winner.

Mike gladly started to fill me in. "I said that whoever could get downstairs the quickest, having done everything to prepare for dinner, would get to choose which video games that they both had to play for the next two days," he said.

I nodded, as he added the last detail. "Whoever passed through the doorway first would be the true winner."

In this case, I was certain that the winner would be Chris. However, Jack definitely seemed to disagree, and the fact that he was a visitor made me feel guilty if I pronounced Chris the winner instead of him. Still, the authoritative teacher in me said that Chris had won fair and square, and so I decided that he was going to be my final choice.

"The winner is Chris," I said, hoping that Jack wouldn't be too disheartened as guilt was already starting to creep up on me again.

Chris pumped the air with his fist, and started dancing around madly in celebration. Jack looked subdued and walked over to sit at the table quietly. Less than a second later, the door opened again and Erica and Addie walked over to sit at the table. They both seemed happy and cheerful, which made me happy.

"How are you girls?" I asked them, as Mike and I both walked over to join the others at the table.

"Good," Erica said, with Addie nodding in agreement.

"That's good to hear," I said, portioning out myself some pasta. "I hope you guys like this, because I know it's not awfully creative or special, but I didn't have much time to cook so it's the best I could do given the shorter amount of time I had."

"It's amazing," Mike said, as he ate a spoonful of pasta and sauce.

"Thanks, babe," I said, smiling.

A/N: Here seemed like a nice place to leave this chapter, so this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Just a word of warning that there is also a place that I will be mentioning in this chapter and probably later chapters that is Frank Jr. Jr.'s (and the other two triplets) college, Northwestern in Chicago. I am unsure whether this is a real place or not, so on the off chance that it is entirely fictional, Morgan Matson owns the rights to the place and not me. Anyway, thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 11 – Frank Jr. Jr.

"Flight 28 to New York is boarding now, so would all passengers please make their way to the gate," I heard over the tannoy, as I walked towards the gate to board the plane to take me to Phoebe and the rest of my New York family.

College had officially ended for Thanksgiving weekend yesterday and I had caught a cab here after breakfast to make sure that I got on my flight at the right time. I was excited to see Phoebe, but a little apprehensive to see everyone else as I tended to be more nervous around extended family, and the last time I saw Phoebe's twins (my half nephews and niece) was when they were much younger and so I wouldn't expect them to remember me very well. Mike seemed to be cheerful enough as I remembered him to be, which definitely did calm my nerves a little more.

I boarded the plane with no hassle, and was able to settle in quickly to my window seat. Luckily the actual flight was only just under 2 hours, so I wouldn't have to be on a plane for too long, as usually I hated how cramped and uncomfortable longer journeys almost always ended up feeling.

Flicking through what was available to watch on the little TVs provided by the airways. Thankfully they had Netflix, which was immediately logged into what I assumed to be some kind of guest account for passengers, and selected Brooklyn 99, as I knew that I loved the show so it would be a comfort choice to get me through this journey.

I decided that it was going to be a good idea to text Phoebe to let her know that I was on the plane. I panicked at first because you obviously need phone signal to text, but then remembered with iMessage that you could send it on WiFi so I was okay.

Just as I finished sending the text, it was announced that we were about to take off and so I reclined back as instructed by the pilot over the loudspeaker and started indulging in Brooklyn 99. I was almost completely relaxed when I felt something touch my sleeve. I looked over and saw that the woman in the seat next to me had nudged me.

I realised that the woman was trying to direct my attention towards an air hostess, who was pushing a trolley full of snacks and drinks. "Do you want anything from the trolley?" she asked me, as I fumbled through my pockets for my wallet.

I chose a chocolate bar and a can of Diet Coke, and passed over a few dollars to the lady. She moved on to the people sitting in the seats in front of us, and I turned my attention back to watching Netflix. I only looked up again when the woman who was sitting next to me was trying to get my attention again.

I took off the headphones that I had been wearing, and heard that we were being given advice for landing. I followed the instructions, and started mentally thinking through what I would have to do when we landed at the airport. I would text Phoebe to let her know I had landed, and meet her in the parking lot of JFK after going to baggage collection.

We had to wait a few minutes before being given more instructions, and then I felt us land. Looking out of my window, I saw the silhouettes of other planes getting ready to take off near the launch pad that we were now standing upon.

"We're about to start letting passengers get off the flight," I heard over the tannoy. "So please take extra care when leaving down the plane steps and make sure that you have collected all your personal belongings with you and have a good rest of your day."

I followed the woman who had been sitting with me on the journey down the aisle of the plane and down the steps off of the plane. I felt ever so slightly dizzy when I first stepped onto the solid concrete ground but the feeling left almost as quickly as it had come, and so I turned my attention to making sure that Phoebe knew that I landed as I joined the crowd of passengers walking towards the main airport building to baggage collection.

I wasn't sure whether I should text or call her, but based on the fact that there was a lot of noise from the airplanes around us, I decided that a text would be better. Phoebe replied almost immediately, saying that she had sent Mike to come and collect me from the airport, and that he would be waiting for me in the JFK parking lot.

I was luckily able to grab my suitcase fairly quickly, but realised that it was going to be more of a challenge to remember the way to navigate through JFK as I hadn't been here in so long, as Dad and Mom had driven me, Leslie and Chandler to college. I figured it was a gesture because they missed us, and had of course been very grateful for it. The others less so, but they still went along with it because we all knew that they did really love Mom and Dad.

Luckily, I managed to find my way to the parking lot without having to ask someone for directions or bump into anyone with my suitcase. There was a slight sinking feeling in my stomach as I realised that I had no real idea of what vehicle to be keeping an eye out for, but hoped that Mike would realise this and make it obvious to me somehow where he was parked.

A Range Rover that had been circling around that I hadn't been paying much attention to stopped on the kerb of the road, window rolling down. "Frank?" the guy who was sitting in the driver's seat asked. I recognised the voice after a moment to be Mike so I rolled my suitcase closer to the window, stopping in front of it.

"That's me," I said, now face to face with Mike. "You're Mike, aren't you?"

Mike nodded, getting out of his seat and starting to walk towards the trunk of the car. "I'll take that," Mike said, nodding at my suitcase as I heard a click and saw the back of the trunk of the car pop open. Clearly Mike had invested in one of those car keys that automatically controlled all of the locks as opposed to having to open them manually, which I had always thought, particularly as a younger child when I believed in magic and stuff like that, was pretty cool and impressive.

Whilst Mike manoeuvred the suitcase to fit in the car trunk, I held the back of the trunk open so it wouldn't accidentally fall and crush him. When we were both satisfied that everything was safe to go, I hopped into the shotgun seat next to Mike.

"What was the journey here like?" Mike asked, as he reversed the car out of our parking spot and down the road towards the parking lot exit.

"Not too bad," I replied, feeling relieved that we were on our way to the house as I was feeling the aftermath of the plane journey and wanted more than anything to be able to sink into a chair and just relax.

"Still, you must be pretty tired by now," Mike said, and I was caught off guard for a moment because it was as if he had just read what I was thinking.

"Yeah," I nodded, trying my best to cover up any remnants of surprise in my expression.

Mike eyed me sympathetically. "When we get home, I'll let the kids know that you would appreciate a bit of peace and quiet for a bit, and I'll get Phoebe to bring you a hot drink or something if that would make it any easier for you," he said.

"Thank you so much," I said, feeling a little overwhelmed by how friendly and pleasant Mike was being. "You're being so nice to me already," I added, hoping that Mike would hear how grateful I was from my tone.

"Oh, you're so welcome!" Mike exclaimed, his tone sounding simultaneously full of surprise and happiness. "Anything for the family, honestly," he added, siling widely at me.

I smiled back, a mutual understanding of gratitude and happiness between us in the silence that followed.

As we were driving, it hit me just how comforting the familiar surroundings had become since I had moved away to college for me. Soon enough, the skyscrapers from the city melted into the rolling fields and blue skies of the suburbs. This meant that we were close to home, and the excitement of my stay started to kick in again.

"Do the twins know much about me?" I asked Mike, genuinely curious as to whether Phoebe's kids had many thoughts towards me.

"We've mentioned you and the others," Mike said, eyes still on the road ahead. "Addie and Chris both seem pretty excited to see their uncle again." He stopped talking for a minute to focus on an upcoming roundabout, but continued talking a couple of minutes later. "Oh, and I don't know if Phoebe had mentioned this," he started saying, "but we're looking after a friend's twins as the whole family are going through a pretty rough time at the moment."

"Oh," I said, concern bubbling up inside me. "That sounds really tough," I added, hoping that I sounded as sympathetic as I had already started to feel, despite having no idea of the specific details. I was considering asking what happened, but I also didn't want to encroach into too personal territory by accident.

"It's looking more and more likely to be a life or death situation every day," Mike said, catching me off guard for a moment until I realised it was to do with the family situation.

"That's horrible!" I said, feeling a lump form in my throat as the full severity of the situation dawned on me.

Mike looked at me and nodded, as if agreeing with me out loud was going to be too difficult. There was a silence between us after that, almost as if in reflection upon and respect of how serious the situation was for Mike and Phoebe's friends and their kids. I desperately hoped everything would work out for everyone involved in the situation, but knew also that it was in no way that simple from the limited knowledge I had of what was going on.

A/N: I feel like this chapter is kind of uninteresting, and so I apologise but it will get far better soon. As per usual, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 12 – Mike

"Hey kids, we're home!" I shouted as Frank and I walked into the house.

I saw that Erica and Addie were sitting on the stairs as if they had planned to be some kind of welcoming committee. "Have you guys been sitting here long?" I asked them, genuinely curious and flattered at how sweet they were being towards our guest if welcoming Frank had been their reason for sitting on the staircase.

Addie answered, "Well, we got bored and Erica had the idea that you guys would appreciate having us welcome you guys back home, especially since Uncle Frank is here as a guest."

"That's so sweet of you guys," Frank said from behind me. "I really appreciate it."

Addie beamed.

"You're welcome," Erica said, as she and Addie got up and walked past Frank and I.

"Where's Phoebe?" I said to myself, as I started walking towards the kitchen, hoping that Frank was following my lead. Fortunately, I was right to think that she might be in the kitchen, as she got up from the sofa to greet us the moment we entered the room.

She and Frank hugged, so I took the opportunity to offer them both a hot drink. "Do either of you guys want a coffee or something?" I asked.

Phoebe nodded, so I started making her regular tea. "Could I have a coffee with one sugar?" Frank asked, and I nodded. "Of course," I said as I walked over to the refrigerator to get a carton of milk.

Phoebe came over to help. "Thank you so much for getting him," she said to me, as she spooned coffee granules into a clean mug.

"Anything for the family, Pheebs," I said, planting a kiss on her cheek as I walked over to the sink to fill the kettle with water to boil.

It was not long before we joined Frank on the sofa.

"Thank you so much, guys," Frank said, as I handed him his coffee.

"It's nothing, really," I said, smiling back at him. I had had slight reservations at having yet another person in the house as well as the twins, but the fact that Frank had been so consistently polite even just in the time that we had spent since picking him up had confirmed that inviting him had in fact been a good idea.

"How are my niece and nephew doing?" Frank asked.

"They're doing really good," Phoebe said, "They started 2nd grade this fall, and they're both really enjoying it. I think also having the twins here has really helped make sure they haven't been lonely, especially with Addie, because she's pretty shy, and so it's good that she's coming out of her shell a bit more with Erica."

Frank nodded. "With the twins also being here, I hope that having me here as well hasn't made things too complicated," he said, sounding sincerely as if he didn't want to be a burden towards us.

"No, no, no," I said. "It's really no extra hassle or anything." I knew that Phoebe felt the same way, especially because I knew that she was just so glad to see a member of her family that she didn't mind nearly as much about the other stuff.

"How's college going for you and the other two?" Phoebe asked Frank.

"It's going okay," Frank replied, sounding less enthused with the topic choice. "Truth be told, it's going better socially for Chandler and Leslie, as they are both in relationships at the moment. I'm enjoying the academic stuff though."

Phoebe nodded. "Reminded me of your major again," she said, looking a little flustered and a little embarrassed at the fact that she had to ask.

"I'm doing computer science," Frank said, not seeming to mind in the slightest about Phoebe asking, which I could tell Phoebe was glad about.

"You do you is all I'm going to say with that," Phoebe replied.

"You not a fan of maths and stuff, then?" Frank asked, sounding slightly amused.

"Not at all," Phoebe said, with a laugh as she scrunched up her nose in disgust.

"What did you do?" Frank asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"I didn't go to college," Phoebe said, surprising me slightly with how freely and easily she admitted it, but then again Phoebe had never been one to conform to society, certainly in the time that I had known her.

"It's certainly not for everyone," Frank shrugged.

The kitchen door opened, and Chris walked in. He made a beeline for the pantry, selecting a packet of chocolate bars and a bag of chips.

"Where do you think you're going with that?" I asked, getting up from the sofa to stop Chris walking out with the food before he could get away.

Chris looked at me sheepishly, clearly knowing that he had been caught and that there was no way that he could get out of this.

"Jack and I need brain food because playing video games is hard if you're hungry," he said, clearly trying to butter me up by bringing one pf our guests into the situation.

I looked over at Phoebe for what to do next, and she shrugged. He had won us over on this one, clearly.

"Fine," I said, "but before you go, say hello to Frank, your cousin."

Chris only seemed to notice that he was in the room after I said this, but even so he walked back over to the sofa with me.

"Hey," he said to Frank, politely enough.

"Hi," Frank said back to him. "Nice haul you got there," he added, with a grin.

Chris grinned. "You gotta do what you gotta do to stay alive," he said, earning a laugh from Frank.

Chris left to go back to Jack. I looked down at my watch and saw that it was already 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Time had flown by fast, and as I looked at Phoebe, I could tell that she was thinking along the same lines of what I was thinking.

"Shall we start making dinner?" I asked Phoebe.

"I still haven't decided what I want to make, though," Phoebe said.

I got up from the sofa and walked to the fridge to see what we had in there. There was not much that could actually be made into a meal, so I walked back over and told Phoebe this.

"I already knew that," she said. "I was planning to do a grocery shop."

"Would it help if I came along to be an extra pair of hands?" Frank asked.

Phoebe nodded, truly grateful for the offer. "That would be so good of you," she said.

"You're welcome," Frank said.

"Let's go now," Phoebe said, getting up from the sofa and walking over to the fridge where there was a fridge magnet that held a pad of paper that you could write grocery lists on it. She quickly jotted down on one of the pieces of paper the food that she wanted, and then she and Frank left the kitchen.

I sat on the sofa, just reading through a book that I had found that I had accidentally left on the coffee table a while ago. It got a bit bring after a while, so I decided to go and check up on the kids.

I figured that the girls would be more understanding if I walked in on whatever they were doing. They were in Erica's temporary room, watching some programme on Erica's MacBook.

"I just came to make sure that neither of you were dying nor wanted anything," I said.

"Yeah, we're good," Addie said. "Although Daddy, could we have something to eat?"

"Mom and Uncle Frank have just gone out to go get dinner," I said, "so not right now, sorry."

Addie looked a little frustrated at my response, but seemed to understand why I said what I said. Erica didn't seem particularly bothered by it.

A/N: I'm aware that this is massively shorter than what I usually write, but I was running out of inspiration for this particular chapter and didn't want to end up running on with some kind of sub-par thing to make up for it. As always, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 13 – Phoebe

"Is there anything I can do to be of help at all?" Frank asked, as I took one last glance at the list of dishes of food that I was making as part of Thanksgiving dinner.

I was now sure that I had all the ingredients I needed, so I turned to Frank and instructed him to turn on the oven for me so that it would be heating up as I began preparing the rest of the food. I had banished Mike from the kitchen to check on the kids for the moment and then to entertain himself, but had a feeling that he would end up being helpful later.

Frank had helped me hook up my phone to the kitchen radio, in the hope that it would help keep me a little calmer in what was going to end up being a very stressful and tense atmosphere to be in later. I was just about to start chopping up the various vegetables that we had for the meal when the door burst open and Jack rushed in, with Chris right behind him.

"What are you doing here, boys?" I asked, as I watched Chris open the freezer door, clearly searching for some food to steal.

"Just getting brain food," Chris said, a tub of ice cream tucked under his arm.

"Not so fast," I said, setting down my knife on the chopping board and walking over to Chris. "You'll ruin your appetite for Thanksgiving dinner," I added, as I attempted to grab the tub of ice cream from Chris.

"But Jack hasn't eaten since he and Erica went out earlier, and you know how unbearable going hungry is," Chris said, clearly attempting to reason with me.

"Nice try," I said, finally managing to retrieve the ice cream from Chris's grip. He gave me a sulky look in return and then stalked off with Jack, presumably to go back to his room.

"Children these days," I said exasperatedly as I started chopping vegetables again.

I heard what sounded like a snigger, and turned round to see that Frank seemed to have turned to look the opposite way to me suspiciously quickly.

"I'm sorry," Frank said sheepishly as he turned back round to face me, clearly aware that he had been caught. "But you have to attempt that was a pretty neat attempt at getting what he wanted."

I shrugged in agreement, realising that Frank was right. As strict as I had tried to sound, I couldn't deny that in retrospect, it had been pretty funny.

I didn't stop rushing frantically around the kitchen until I was sure that everything that need to be in the oven was in there, and that I could keep a good watch on the stove from where I was sitting at the little kitchen table.

Frank had offered to make me a cup of tea, which I had gladly accepted as we sat together at the table.

"So how is everything with your parents? How are they doing?" I asked Frank, realising that he didn't mention much about Alice or Frank Jr.

"They're doing pretty well," Frank answered. "Honestly, I think they are just revelling in the fact that they finally get some peace and quiet again for the vast majority of the year now."

"Fair enough," I said, chuckling a little. Bringing up twins had been a real task at first, but had got much easier as they both grew up. The closest I've ever got to looking after more than them has been with Jack and Erica being here as well, and honestly, if they were much younger and needed more close looking after, I know for a fact that I wouldn't be able to cope.

"But they have said that they've missed the three of us," Frank admitted, softly smiling a little as he spoke.

"I feel like anyone would if you had that many kids to look after," I said. "I mean, it would certainly be much quieter and much weirder even without my own two."

Frank nodded. Just as the timer that I had set to remind me of the food that was on the stove, the door opened and Mike walked in.

"Hey babe," I said, as I turned down the heat on the stove with the pan of potatoes.

"This already looks amazing," Mike said, walking to lean against the countertop near the sink.

"Thanks," I said, blushing slightly whilst I put one of the saucepan lids back on the pan.

Just as I felt like all the managing the cooking was getting a little too much for one person to handle, Mike and Frank both offered to start helping me, which I gladly accepted.

The doorbell rang just as I was putting a dish back in the oven, which I called for one of the kids to get, hoping that they would hear.

"I'll go get it," Mike said, turning the tap off that he had been using to start washing up the dishes I'd used so far.

Mike was gone for a couple of minutes, and walked back through with Monica. He must have seen my look of surprise because he started talking immediately.

"Oh, Mon just came to give Jack back his bag that he had left in the car from earlier," he explained. "Is it all right if we offer Mon a quick drink?" he added, with a pleading look in his eyes despite the rest of his expression looking as if he didn't want to add to my stress by saying yes without me.

"Sure," I shrugged, with a distinct feeling that I might end up regretting this decision later.

Mike poured her a cup of coffee from the cafetiere, and instructed Mon to take up a seat at the kitchen table.

I gave Mike a quick glare, as he seemed to be blissfully unaware of the fact that there were dishes and other food related items strewn all over the table. He ignored it and started talking to Monica.

"So how are you doing?" he asked, as I had feeling that he wanted to make sure she was okay after the visit to her Mom, as we all knew that it had been hard for her and cared that she was finding ways for it to feel less unbearable.

"Fine," Mon replied, which made me turn my head her way as her response sounded more like she was bluffing than how she truthfully felt.

I seemed that Mike had also noticed because he then said, "If there is absolutely anything more that Phoebe and I can do for you and Chandler, please just let us know."

Mon smiled weakly back at Mike, and I saw Mike quickly flash me a concerned look, as if he wanted to speak to me as soon as possible but not now of course.

"What are you and Chandler's plans for the rest of today?" Mike asked, as if he was really straining to try and make polite conversation, but I could tell that his heart wasn't in it.

"Probably just to order in a pizza or something," Mon shrugged, still sounding like she was trying to put on a braver face to bluff us.

"I think we can all agree that pizza is always a solid choice," Mike said, his cheerful act wavering from his tone.

I realised that I was at a point in cooking that I could leave it again and be able to take a short break, so I joined Mike and Monica at the table. Frank had moved over to the sofa, as I had dismissed him since I no longer needed him to work for me.

I could tell that Monica had definitely lost her usual spark, and looked past the point of being worn out. There was a definite empty look in her eyes, even as she sat with her cup of coffee, nodding along as Mike spoke. I was seriously concerned for her, but was unsure how I would ask without overstepping the line of what she was comfortable sharing with me.

We sat together for a while, as I listened to Mike talking to Mon and occasionally added my own thoughts to the conversation. I decided to attempt to push my worries about Mon not be as okay as she wanted us to think away for the moment and just try and enjoy the conversation we were having together.

A/N: Sorry for cutting this chapter so short, but I didn't want to drag this chapter on as I was running out of ideas for what to include. Regardless, here's the usual reminder from me to you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 14 – Addie

I heard a knock at the door, and looked to Erica for what she thought we should do next.

"It's just Frank," we both heard whoever was on the other side of the door say.

"Come in," Erica said, and we both watched from the bed as the door opened and Frank walked in.

"Phoebe," Frank said, before correcting himself. "Sorry, your Mom said that it was almost time for Thanksgiving dinner and that you guys need to start making your way to the kitchen diner."

"Thanks for letting us know," Erica said, again before I could answer, and Frank promptly left afterwards.

We were halfway through the third Harry Potter film and I really didn't want to have to stop watching it, but before I could stop her, Erica was pressing pause on her laptop and was putting it back in her really cool carry case for it.

"I wanted to continue watching it!" I wailed, trying to sound as hurt as possible.

"We can after food," Erica said, in an authoritative voice that I was desperate to point out sounded so much like a boring mom.

Despite desperately wanting to put up more of a fight, in the end I followed Erica out of my room and into the bathroom to wash our hands.

As the sink filled with bubbles from the hand soap, I couldn't resist the urge to scoop up and chuck some of the bubbles Erica's way.

"Hey!" Erica shrieked, before attempting to grab some bubbles for herself, presumably to have her go in trying to get me.

After a few rounds of trying to completely each other, I heard a knock on the door and we both turned round in shock. As we saw the door handle turning and heard the click that followed, I realised that there would be no way to be able to cover this up.

It was Jack in the doorway. "What _are_ you guys doing?" his voice full of confused amusement.

"Nothing," I said, more as a default reaction as I knew that he would figure it out soon enough.

Like a second later, I heard a snigger that was quickly followed by a hasty cough.

"You're so busted!" I heard, and then watched as Jack rushed after Erica, scooping up some of the bubbles for himself and then chucking them Erica's way.

I tried to move out of the firing line as soon as I could, but was hit by a few bubbles in the process. I decided to leave them to sort out their differences alone, and start making my own way to dinner. As I climbed down the stairs and started walking towards the kitchen, the shrieks from upstairs got no quieter and I was sure that someone was either going to ask me about them when I was in the kitchen or come out to investigate themselves.

I pushed open the door to the kitchen and saw that everyone was there, apart from Jack and Erica.

"What on earth is going on up there?" Dad asked me from the dinner table, where he was busy setting out cutlery.

"I don't even really know," I replied, realising that even I didn't know quite why the bathroom fight had escalated in quite the way it had.

I heard a laugh, and looked over to the sofa where Frank was sitting. "I'm sorry," he said, turning round to reveal that he looked a little embarrassed. "It's just that the noise reminded me of some of my own childhood memories."

"Aww," I heard Mom say, as she started moving dishes off of the kitchen counter to the middle of the table. "Sometimes I wish I could say the same about Ursula, but with us it was just genuine fights and arguments."

"I never had any siblings," Dad added, moving from the table to the oven to help Mom bring the food over to the table. "I think that's probably why I was so desperate for kids with you," he said, flashing a smile Phoebe's way as they walked past each other.

"At least our two get along for the moment, because God forbid the later years," Mom said, sounding relieved as I tried to figure out what exactly she was trying to say about me and Chris, with the distinct feeling that it wasn't positive.

"I'm sure it won't be _that_ bad," Dad replied.

I was still unsure exactly what they were trying to get at, and I was about to ask when the kitchen door flew open and Erica and Jack rushed in.

"Whew!" Erica breathed heavily, sounding worn out as she leant against the kitchen counter in a clear attempt to get her breath back.

"Might I ask what on earth you two were doing that was making such a racket?" Mom asked both Erica and Jack, sounding a mixture between bewildered, stern and amused.

"Chucking bubbles from the hand soap at each other," Jack admitted, sounding sheepish as he seemed to realise that not everyone would probably find what had happened as amusing as he did.

"Well, I'm glad you two had fun," Mom said, as she and Dad bought the last of the dishes to the table. "Please sit down – I don't mind where."

I sat down in one of the spare seats that had been mine for since Jack and Erica had joined us. Erica sat next to me, but Jack sat in between Frank and Chris. Mom and Dad sat at their usual seats.

"Feel free to take as much food as you want," Mom instructed, as we all followed her gaze to the mountain of various dishes that sat in front of us. "But I know there's a lot, so don't feel pressured to finish it all, as I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities to use it all up in the coming days."

I took some of everything, and started eating, realising that I was much more hungry than I had first thought.

"So how have you guys' days been?" Mom asked, sounding happy that she was able to relax after being so busy.

"Pretty good," Frank answered, as he poured gravy all over his food from the ceramic gravy boat. "It's been nice just being able to catch up with everyone."

"It is," Mom agreed, cheerfully. "Make sure that you tell Leslie and Chandler that they are also welcome here any time they want."

"I will," Frank promised, as he took a sip from his glass of wine.

"Mom, what do we have for drinks please?" I asked, starting to get out of my chair to go search for a class in the cupboards.

"We have either Diet Coke or juice available for now," Mom said, starting to get up from her own chair to come and help me.

"I'll be fine getting it myself," I said, feeling a little annoyed. "But thanks," I added, hoping that this would make it up a little to Mom and persuade her to definitely stop helping me.

I went over to the fridge and selected the Diet Coke bottle. I bought it to the countertop with the cupboards above and started searching for a glass. I ended up settling on one of the wine glasses, a little bit because I wanted to feel as sophisticated as the adults with their wine glasses.

"Does anyone else want Diet Coke?" I asked to know whether I could leave the bottle out or whether I should put it back away.

Jack did, and so I took my glass back to my seat as he stood up to come over and pour himself a glass.

"Kids," Mom said, and I looked up from my plate to hear what she wanted to say.

"Yeah," Chris said.

Mom looked satisfied that she had all our attention and decided to continue on with what she was saying. "Have you enjoyed having Frank to stay so far?"

"Yeah," I replied, even though I was kind of desperate to do more with Frank as we hadn't done much as a family together so far.

"Dad and I were thinking that we could all go somewhere at some point whilst Frank is still here, like tomorrow or something," Mom said, as if she had read my mind in that exact moment.

"Yes!" I said, not even trying to keep the excitement out of my voice.

"What about the rest of you? What do you think?" Mom said, clearly wanting to know how Jack, Erica and Chris felt about the idea too.

"I think it sounds cool," Jack said, as Erica nodded in agreement.

"So that's three yesses," Mom concluded. "I think we can safely say that it is on, then."

"So, who wants to play a quick game?" Dad asked, as he helped Mom put all the dishes in the dishwasher as we had finally completely finished Thanksgiving dinner.

"I do," I said, looking at Erica who nodded in agreement with me that she also wanted to play.

"What about you guys?" Dad asked Chris and Jack.

Both Chris and Jack shook their heads, and then Chris asked if the both of them could be excused from the table presumably to back to their room.

When they had left, Erica and I started talking to Frank whilst we waited for Mom and Dad to join us again.

"Did we actually decide what game we want?" Frank asked Erica and I.

I looked to Erica, and she shook her head. "I don't think so, no," I concluded.

"What games do you guys have?" Frank asked Mom and Dad.

"Loads of different ones," Dad answered. "Any particular favourites?"

"I'm a big fan of Trivial Pursuit, if you have that," Frank replied.

"Pretty sure we do," Dad said, sounding thoughtful. "I haven't played it in years though, so you'll have to remind me of the rules."

"Maybe we could team up or something," Frank suggested.

Dad finished helping Mom load the dishwasher, and then left to search for the game.

Mom sat back down with us, cradling a mug of that she had made earlier and forgotten about until now.

"Dinner was so lovely, by the way," Frank said. "I couldn't remember if I'd thanked you earlier," he added.

"Oh no, it's fine," Mom said proudly, as I noticed she was blushing slightly.

Dad came back soon enough with the game, and Mom started to help him set up the game, as she seemed to remember it better than him.

"So, who's playing solo and who's on a team?" Mom asked, looking around at us.

"I'll go with anyone," I said, hoping that this might make Mom's job a little easier.

"Dad's going with me for sure," Mom said, as Dad pulled a fake disappointed face. "So that leaves an odd number of people," she said, brows furrowed as she realised that the job was a little more complicated than she had perhaps initially anticipated.

"I'll go alone," Frank said.

"That's solves it!" Mom exclaimed happily.

Frank grinned at her happily.

I started to look around for where I would need to move my seat to be with Erica, but then I remembered that she was actually sitting right beside me. Erica laughed and I realised she too had caught on to what I was trying to do.

I was blushing slightly out of embarrassment, but hoped that when I focused on the game, it would go. We ended up doing a practise round and then began the actual game.

Frank won the first round, which surprised no one, even though I noticed that Erica was frustrated, but that was just typical of her competitive nature. Mom and Dad had come third, which I knew that Chris and I would have a lot of fun making fun of later when we got a chance.

Two games in later, the tension was really starting as Erica and I still hadn't won a round, and we were both getting fed up of coming in second place.

Just as we were about to start a fourth round, the door flew open and Jack rushed in with Chris hot on his heels as usual.

"What is it that you want now?" Mom asked.

"Brain food, as usual," Chris answered.

"Are you serious? You literally just had a huge dinner!" Mom replied, in disbelief.

"Oh, is that the game!" Chris said, walking over to get a better look at the game. "Who's winning so far?"

"Frank," Mom answered, as if she was deciding whether it would be a good idea to stay sitting or stand up in the situation.

"Is there room for two more players?" Chris asked.

I saw Mom's expression change to one of frustration. "We are currently just starting a round," she said. "Besides, I asked you two before and you said no."

Chris grunted. "Can't we sit out this round and watch and then join the next one?" he asked, clearly trying to reach a compromise with Mom.

"Sure, whatever," she said, and she settled back down for us to resume the game.

We played a couple of rounds with the boys, who got far too excited despite Mom and Dad's repeated asking for them to stop or they would be sent out, which Frank seemed to find highly amusing.

"We call a rematch!" Chris yelled, grabbing a bunch of Scrabble tiles and shoving them into the tile bag to shuffle them all for the next round.

"Don't you think we're all a little tired for that?" Mum said. "It's just some of us have travelled a lot recently, and I've had a really, really busy day so I would just love to take a little bit of a break."

"Oh man!" Chris exclaimed, sounding disappointed.

"I mean, I'm sure I could fit in one game…" Frank started saying.

"No, no, no," Mom said, with her stern Mom voice. "Everyone is getting an early night, whether you like it or not."

Chris threw down the Scrabble tile bag in disgust, and he and Jack promptly left. Erica and I began helping put away the Scrabble stuff until Mom said it would be fine if we went off to my room, so we left the kitchen diner and went up the stairs back into my room.

"Shall we finish the movie that we started earlier?" Erica asked.

I nodded happily, as I raced her up the stairs.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 15 – Chris

{A/N: Before I properly begin, I just wanted to say that we have started to enter back into the less happy parts of the books, and I warn anyone who is sensitive to the topic of bereavement to be conscious of that before proceeding with the story}

I'm woken up by a knock on the bedroom door, but before I can get out of bed and open the door myself, it opened and Mom walked in.

"Good morning!" she said, cheerfully, opening the curtains which lit up the whole room and made me feel like I had temporarily gone partially blind as my eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness.

I groaned, but still sat up as I knew that there was going to be no chance of me being able to fall back to sleep.

"Hi, Mom," I said, stretching as rearranged the duvet cover so I could get out of bed and put on my slippers.

"When you're ready to come downstairs, there's breakfast being made," Mom said, as if she was planning to go out again to let me get ready for the day. "It's a school day, remember."

I roll my eyes, but start making my way downstairs after Mom has left the room and I've put on my dressing robe.

When I get to the kitchen, I see that Mom and Dad are already making breakfast as Mom said, but also that Jack, Erica and Addie were also here at the table already.

"What's the time?" I asked, still in a slight daze from tiredness, convinced that it was still way earlier than it should be and that I am owed a few extra hours of sleep.

"It's half past seven," Dad answers, putting a carton of milk that he had taken out of the fridge to make hot drinks back.

I sat down at the table with the others, as hunger began to take over how tired I was feeling.

"Hey," Jack said as I sat down in a chair beside him. "You sleep well?"

I nodded. "It wasn't too bad," I said. "What about you?"

"It was pretty good," Jack replied, sounding considerably more alert and awake than I felt.

The kitchen door opened almost a second later, and Uncle Frank walked in.

"Good morning all," he said, as Mom looked up from the pan that she was cooking with on the stove.

"Do you want something to drink?" she asked, as if trying to figure out whether she could leave the pan cooking for a minute to boil the kettle for him.

In the end, Dad walked over to the kettle and answered Mom's slight dilemma. Frank had replied that he wanted a coffee.

He came over to sit at the table, after Dad had waved him off from trying to help him.

"How are you guys?" he asked the four of us, looking from one of us to the other.

"Pretty good," Jack answered. "And you?"

"I'm not bad," Frank replied, "although I'm not looking forward to the flight back to college later today."

As Frank said this, I remembered that as well as the four of us having to go back to school, Frank also had to fly out back to college. I would miss him, as it had been fun having him around, even if we hadn't had much time to go out and do stuff that wasn't outside the house. it would become especially boring when Jack and Erica went back home with Monica and Chandler, but I hoped that wouldn't be for a while, since neither Mom nor Dad had mentioned a time when this would happen, so for now when they would leave was indefinite.

Soon enough, Mom and Dad started bringing across plates of breakfast food. I saw that they had made toast, bacon, scrambled eggs, fried tomatoes and sausages.

"Help yourselves," Mom instructed, bringing plates and cutlery across from where she had left them in a stack on the counter.

I took a plate off of the pile and a knife and fork and started helping myself to the food.

"Have either of you two heard from your parents?" Mom asked, looking from Jack to Erica.

Jack shrugged, looking at Erica clearly to see if she had heard anything.

"I spoke to Mom last night right before I went to bed just say goodnight to her and Dad," Erica said.

"Cool," Mom said. "I just wanted to make sure that she and Chandler were okay, because I know the situation is difficult for all of you at the moment."

"Thank you," Erica said, as if she really appreciated Mom's concern.

"Are you guys going to be okay with getting to school from here?" Mom asked Erica and Jack. "It's just because I know that being here, you're further away from it than usual."

"We should be able to catch one of the city buses so we're good," Jack said, in a tone that was clearly trying to reassure Mom that he and Erica would be absolutely fine and that she need only worry about Addie and I.

After I finished eating my breakfast, I went back upstairs to finish getting ready for school, as I had done very little in the way of it before I had eaten.

Even though I was in 3rd grade, the teachers had been generous with the amount of homework they had given us for this weekend probably because it was Thanksgiving weekend, and so I had only had a few chapters to read of a book that we were currently studying. I had done it yesterday before I went to bed, which I was glad of because I didn't want to risk getting in trouble over it.

I packed my backpack full of the things I needed for school and got changed out of pyjamas and into a pair of jeans and a shirt. All I had left to do was use the bathroom, but since there was likely to be a queue for it at this moment in time, I sat on the edge of my bed, contemplating whether I might have time to play a video game or something before we had to leave for school.

Just as I was sure I had made my decision, I heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" I called.

"It's Mom," I heard Mom say from the other side of the bedroom door.

"Come in," I said, as I saw the doorknob turning, and Mom walked in, closing the door behind her.

"I just came to make sure that you were getting ready as I'm on back to school patrol this morning," Mom said, as I laughed because it was as if she was trying to be funny but massively failing at it on purpose at the same time.

I grab my backpack and start unzipping it so I can show off the fact that I have everything ready to Mom, also in part so I can get some time in to play some Minecraft before I will actually have to leave for school.

When Mom is finally satisfied that I have everything I need with me, I take quick look at the little radio clock that I have on my bedside table. Addie has an almost identical one beside her bed.

"Has Addie been in here since you got up here from breakfast?" Mom asked, which surprised me slightly because I would've expected her to have checked on Addie before checking on me.

"Nope," I say, as I realise that I have completely run out of time to try and fit in some gaming time before needing to get off to school.

I walked out of the bedroom, closely followed by Mom, in the direction of the bathroom to finish getting ready for school so Addie and I could leave with Mom for school as we usually did without being too late.

Just as I reached the bathroom, the door flew open and Addie rushed out, closely followed by Erica. Addie was shrieking and Erica was looking as if she was having trouble breathing because she was laughing so hard.

"What _is_ going on?" Mom asked, sounding more bewildered than annoyed by the situation.

I looked from Mom to the girls, as I realised that it was going to be quite a while before either of them regained enough composure to be able to explain.

Mom went into the bathroom, presumably to investigate what on earth had happened, and I followed her, mostly out of sheer curiosity.

The sink was full of and overflowing with what looked like either soap bubbles or aftershave cream. However, the fun didn't stop there, as both Mom and I soon realised that whatever it was had also been tracked all over the tiles flanking the sink and the all over the other walls too. It seemed that it had also been on the bathroom mirror as well from the streaks on the mirror that had clearly been created as a result of a hasty attempt to wipe it off.

Mom was surveying the damage that had been done, shaking her head as if she couldn't quite believe just how much of a mess had been made.

"They're going to be in so much trouble, aren't they," I said to Mom, even though I was secretly wishing that I had been able to get a weigh on in the action before Addie and Erica had got busted. Of course, I wasn't going to say anything, as it would most likely do me a favour to stay on Mom's good side.

Presumably when Mom felt like she had done enough damage investigation, she stalked out of the bathroom, clearly on a rampage to try and find the culprits behind the bathroom assault. I returned to my room to finally be able to play the video games that I had wanted to play since I woke up, because it was clear to me that it would be a while before any of us were able to get to school.

I don't know how long I ended up spending playing video games until Mom came in, her face flushed as if she had been very annoyed and been shouting a lot, to tell me that I should go use the bathroom now as we were almost ready to finally get in the car to go to school. We had to be quick though, Mom added, as we were already running ever so slightly late due to the morning's added events.

It didn't take me long to get fully ready, and I was the first one in the car. Erica and Jack insisted on still catching the bus to their school, even after Mom's attempts at offering them a lift, but she finally gave in and then finally she, Addie and I were off to school in the car.

Even though it wasn't even quite 9am yet, it still felt like a whole day had passed with the events that had happened. Luckily for me, though, I was far from how tired I had felt for the vast majority of the morning so far.

Soon enough, Mom was kicking Addie and I out of the car at our school and went speeding off in her car to the carpark of the school down the road, which happened to be the school that she had a job at.

Addie and I made a beeline for the reception of our school, as I was hoping that we wouldn't get in trouble for being a few minutes late, as usually our teacher didn't mind too much if you were only a few minutes late, but I didn't quite fancy taking any chances.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 16 – Mike

"Hey guys! I'm home!" I said loudly, as I took my shoes off and hung my jacket up on the coat rack.

Since no one had come out to greet me, I decided that I would likely find one them at least in the kitchen. I pushed open the kitchen door when I got to it, and heard what sounded like some kind of TV programme. Sure enough, the TV was on and I saw two people sitting on the sofa, but I couldn't quite work out who of the family it was.

I walked over to the sofa, and saw that it was Erica and Addie, sharing a blanket between the two of them.

"Hey guys," I said, making myself comfortable on the sofa.

I had to gently nudge Addie before she realised it was me, after jumping slightly in surprise. She gave me a slightly unimpressed look at first, but then her expression changed to one that clearly reflected that she was happy to see me.

Erica had also noticed that I was here by this point, and subsequently paused the TV with the remote.

"Hey, Mike," she said. "You all right?"

I nodded, dropping a little kiss on the top of Addie's head. "Just tired after work, as usual," I added, sighing a little. "How was school?"

"Pretty good," Erica said, sounding genuinely like it had gone well, as I knew all too well the situation that was hanging over and her brother and was of course concerned to check for warning signs that either her or her brother were particularly struggling.

"That's really great," I said, smiling and making sure that Erica saw that I was genuinely happy for her. "Are any of the others here?" I asked, as Addie adjusted her sitting position on the sofa so she was snuggling up to me.

"Jack's here," Erica said. "And Chris," she added. "The last I saw of them was when they came in here and stole a load of food out of the larder and the fridge. Phoebe's also here, but I don't know where she is now."

"Thanks," I said, feeling reassured that all the members of my family, whether they be temporary or not, were safe and happy. "I think I'm gonna go find Pheebs," I said, getting up from the sofa despite Addie's protests to get me to stay.

I decided to go straight to Phoebe and I's bedroom, thinking that there was a high likelihood that she would be there, either grading work, creating lessons plans or putting away laundry or suchlike.

I was correct in my educated guesses, as sure enough I found Phoebe in the bedroom, cup of coffee on her bedside table and MacBook on her lap, as she busily typed away.

She looked up when I sat down on my side of the bed. "Hey, babe. How was your day?" she said, breaking into a smile.

"Same old, same old," I said, a wave of happiness washing over me because I was finally with my wife again after being away from her for the vast majority of the day and I felt more relaxed than I had felt all day because of her company.

"I mean, it's good that it wasn't one of those shitty days where you just want more than anything for them to end," Phoebe said, and immediately alarm bells went off in my head in case she was inadvertently describing how her day had been.

Phoebe must have noticed it, because almost immediately she said, "But don't worry. My day was pretty standard too, but not what I would call shitty by any respect."

I felt myself sigh in relief. "You doing school work?" I asked, relieved at the chance to change the subject in the current moment, even if it was just slightly.

Phoebe nodded, and I saw her lean across the MacBook to pick up some paperwork that had been sitting there in a pile.

"I have some lesson plans that I wanted to get done for next week," she explained, sounding less pleased about it than I could tell she was trying to let on.

"Should we get something easy for dinner like pizza then, so you don't have to worry about cooking something and put all your focus on this? I just wouldn't want to put added pressure on you," I said, as I saw Phoebe give me a warm smile, clearly expressing her gratitude for my suggestion.

"Thanks, babe," she replied. "You're the best!"

"It's all par for the course of being a husband and a father," I said, feeling a wave of pride wash over me as I spoke because I felt like I did a pretty good job at being in both of those positions.

I searched my pockets and then my bedside table I search of my phone to place an order for food, until I remembered that I had left it downstairs in my jacket pocket. I got up from the bed, stretching and then made my way downstairs to the front door where all the coats and shoes were kept.

Sure enough, my phone was where I had left it, but the battery percentage told me it was almost dead. I walked into the kitchen, and plugged it into the charger. Luckily the charging lead was long enough to extend to the kitchen tale, so I would be able to sit there and make the call whilst not having to worry about my phone going dead or having to run the risk of suffering a case of pins and needles as a result of standing up in the same position for an extended period of time.

When I saw the time stamp on my phone lockscreen, I realised that it was only like five thirty, which was still a little too early for food so I decided that I would check Facebook before ordering again in about half an hour or an hour or something like that.

I was sort of just mindlessly scrolling through family and friend's random posts, when one particularly caught my eye. I tapped the post to expand it so I could read the whole thing and felt my heart drop.

Judy.

Fuck.

Fuckfuckfuck.

I saw that the post had been made by Ross in the earlier hours of the morning (thanks a lot, time stamps) and definitely sounded as if the reality of the situation hadn't quite sunk in yet. There was a number of comments under the post, and I scrolled through, expecting to see some kind of comment from either Rachel or Monica or the both of them. I was surprised to see nothing from either of them, but also remembered that perhaps it was still too early for them to really want to talk about it. In the end, I just decided to comment saying that the family sends them love through this unbearably difficult time and would be more than happy to support them all in any way we could if need be.

As I dialled the number for the pizza place, the reality of the amount of people that Phoebe and I knew who would be devastated at the death of Judy. Like, the fact that two whole families' lives have been turned upside down as a result of this is a cruel and heartbreaking reminder of just how unfair the reality of the situation is.

I was able to push my thoughts on the situation aside to be able to order the pizza, but the minute that was over, I found myself stuck on whether it was going to be a good idea to tell Phoebe yet about Judy, as the situation could get pretty complicated until everyone knows and is on the same page, and even then the aftermath of the situation doesn't stop there.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 17 – Phoebe

"Okay, sure," I said to Monica over the phone. "I'll let the twins know and get them to pack as soon as possible so we'll be over to you around 7.30-8, as you wanted."

"Thank you so much, Pheebs," Mon said, sounding relieved.

"You're welcome," I said, feeling a little relieved myself that I would now have less kids running around and needing my attention because, despite the fact that it had been incredibly rewarding looking after the twins, I certainly wouldn't have said no to a break. "See you later then."

"See you," Mon said, and then hung up.

"Mike!" I yelled from the bed where I was still sitting on, working. I hoped that he was upstairs, as he probably wouldn't hear me if he wasn't. "Michael Hannigan!"

Mike came into the room as the door burst open, sounding as if he had been running up the stairs from the fact that he was clutching his stomach, using the dressing table in our room to stabilise himself as he got his breath back.

"Yes, Pheebs?" he said, still a little breathlessly.

"Can you let Erica and Jack know that I'm taking them back to Chandler and Monica's later?" I asked, moving around some of the papers that had sort of held me captive whilst I'd been working.

"Sure," Mike replied, sounding a little confused by the sudden change of plans as I had felt when Mon had first asked me. I noticed the confusion left his face surprisingly quickly though, as if he knew why she had asked and wasn't going to tell me why. I decided not to ask and leave it be even so.

"I think I'm going to call it a day with all this work," I said, shutting down the lid of my MacBook and put it on my bedside table. I gathered up all my notes, and put them on top of it.

"Okay," Mike said, as he left the bedroom presumably to go and find the twins.

I got out of the bed, and started making my way downstairs to the kitchen. I realised I hadn't asked Mon whether she was planning on feeding the twins, and so was unsure whether to get plates out for them for the pizza. In the end, I decided that I would keep the pizza that had been originally bought for the twins as spares, assuming that Mon did want to feed the kids when they got back to them.

Just as I had finished stacking all the plates we would need for the pizza on the counter, Mike walked back into the kitchen.

"Both of them know that they're going home, and Erica promised that she would pack," Mike said, sounding a little tired. "Jack, however, seemed so engrossed in whatever video game that he was playing that I told him about packing, but whether he'll actually get around to doing it is a little hit and miss."

Shaking my head in sympathy for Jack's slightly irritating behaviour making Mike's job unnecessarily harder, I said, "Thanks for doing that."

"Oh, it's just part of being a father, as I always say," Mike said, sounding happy.

"Still, seriously though, I'm so grateful for having an extra pair of hands to help," I said, coaxing Mike into a hug, which he eventually gave into.

"You're the best wife I could ever ask for," he replied, kissing me gently.

I felt myself blushing slightly, mostly because I was so overwhelming happy in this moment.

The doorbell rang, and I broke apart from Mike as he went to the door to collect the pizzas. Meanwhile, I started setting out the plates into their designated spots on the table according to whose place around the table they were at.

"Kids! Food!" I yelled, hoping that this would be enough, coupled with the smell of pizza that was gradually diffusing within the house, to send them running down here.

As Mike walked in, both hands full as he attempted to successfully keep the pizzas balanced, I heard the stomps of feet thundering down the stairs.

Almost a minute later, the door was shoved open and Jack and Chris skidded in, fortunately stopping before they could run the risk of sending each other flying as result of accidentally ramming into each other before they could slow down.

"Did someone say pizza?" Chris asked, though he was kind of shouting more than just simply talking.

"Yep," I said, grinning at Chris's enthusiasm.

Jack and Chris helped me move the pizza boxes across from the countertop to the table. By then, Erica and Addie had also joined us at the table, and we were all soon tucking into the pizza. Despite having set the rule that I would not allow Jack and Erica to eat some of the pizza because of the dinner plans of their parents, I decided that it didn't matter too much and if it really did, then I would wholeheartedly take the blame for it.

In a predictably short amount of time, the pizzas were all completely gone and twins left the table, Chris and Addie claiming that they were assisting Jack and Erica in their packing. I let it happen, since I knew that there were probably just trying to spend as much time together as they could, since the four of them were highly likely to miss each other a lot later and understandably wanted to make up for it right now.

When all four of the kids had left the table and gone upstairs, I helped Mike put away all the pizza boxes and put the plates in the dishwasher. I sent Mike out to the recycling to put the boxes in there whilst I loaded the dishes.

After I was satisfied everything was put away, I sat down at the table and scrolled through my phone, using this as an attempt to pass the time before I would need to start driving the twins home. I was planning on asking Mike if he could take over the bedroom routine whilst I was out so that would be one less thing I would have to worry about.

When Mike came back into the kitchen, I seized the opportunity to ask him. "Do you mind being in charge of the bedroom routine whilst I'm out?" I asked.

"Not at all," he said, as he washed his hands quickly at the sink and came to join me at the table.

We spent about half an hour/quarter of an hour in silence, just simply scrolling on our phones on social media and a few other apps, until I realised what the time was, thanks to the time stamp in the left hand corner of my phone.

"Shit," I said, not realising that I had actually said it out loud and not just thought it.

"What?" Mike asked, looking a little confused.

"The time," I said, pointing to the kitchen wall clock. It was 6.53pm, which meant I only had just over half an hour to get the Geller twins back home. Fuck.

I shoved my phone slightly more aggressively than was probably necessary into my jean pocket, shoving open the kitchen door and started my trek to the guest rooms where Erica and Jack had been staying.

Erica's was first, with the door slightly ajar. I pushed it open, assuming that the fact that it had bene open was an invitation to be able to come in, and saw that Erica was still busily working away at trying to pack her stuff. Nevertheless, it looked like she had made good progress so far.

"Do you want any help with anything?" I asked, not wanting to jump in and accidentally mess up how she had already organised her stuff.

"Thanks, but I think I'll be all right," Erica answered. "Thanks for the offer, though."

"You're welcome," I said, leaving the room continue on to Jack's.

His door was shut, so I knocked and then waited for some kind of response.

"Come in," Jack said, as I heard something crash to the floor, startling me ever so slightly.

"Is everything all right?" I asked as I pushed open the door, expecting to see something smashed on the floor or something.

In actual fact, there was nothing on the floor, and the suitcase on his bed was packed surprisingly neatly. Jack turned round and started to talk, having presumably acknowledged that I was wondering what the noise was.

"Oh, the crash was just this goddamn suitcase," he said, not sounding at all frustrated.

"Can I help carry anything or…" I said, trailing off slightly.

"Sure, yeah," Jack said, starting to attempt to shove his suitcase across the duvet to me so I could grab hold of it and start wheeling it to the front door.

In a joint effort, Jack and I were able to manoeuvre all his stuff to the front door to be packed into the car once Erica had joined us. Just as I was contemplating checking up on her progress, I heard the muffled screech of wheels on the carpet and sure enough saw Erica walking towards us.

"All my stuff's here," she said, sounding out of breath from lugging both her rucksack and suitcase all the way from the guest room that had been her bedroom for the last while.

"Okay, let's start packing the car," I instructed, opening the front door and shoving me feet into trainers.

I let Jack and Erica pass me with their stuff, before walking outside to join them, using the car key to unlock the trunk of the car to put the suitcases and bags away.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 18 – Addie

"Is that your Mom's car?" I said to Talia, my friend whose house I had been invited to for dinner, pointing to a car that was pulling up into the parking lot.

"Yeah," she said, as I followed her to where the car had decided to stop.

When we got to the car, the shotgun seat window rolled down and I saw someone who must have been Talia's mom in behind the wheel, and heard a small in the backseats who must have been Talia's little sister that she had already told me a load about.

"You must be Addie," Talia's mom said, as she got out of her side of the car and started walling round to the side that Talia and I were standing on.

"Yeah," I mumbled, realising that I was much shyer than I had thought I was going to be.

"I'm Kay," Talia's mom said, smiling reassuring at me as she seemed to have noticed that I was feeling a little shy. "And that's Talia's little sister, Beth," she added, pointing at the young girl strapped into a car seat in the back of the car.

"Awesome," I said, as Talia opened the shotgun seat door for me, which I then got into as I was sure that was why she had opened it.

Talia herself sat with Beth in the back, and so I was sat next to her Mom. I didn't mind too much, since I probably would've liked it more than being in the back with Beth if I was being totally honest.

"You don't have any allergies or anything?" Talia's mom asked me as she backed the car out of the parking lot and started driving along the main road away from school.

"Pretty sure I don't," I answered, as it was true that Mom had never mentioned anything like that to me.

"Oh, good," Talia's mom said, sounding relieved. "I was thinking of doing pasta for dinner, if that's all right with you two."

I nodded, and Talia must have too, because Talia's mom said nothing more on the subject.

On our journey to Talia's house, her Mom asked us about school and stuff, which I was more than happy to answer, even though school wasn't really my most favourite topic of conversation ever. Talia being in a load of my lessons did help it a lot though, as she always made it more fun, since we both loved to mess around together.

When we pulled up into the garage at Talia's house, Talia's mom told Talia and I to get out whilst she parked the car and then we walked up to the front door.

We waited for a couple of minutes until Talia's mom unlocked the door for us.

"Addie, you can just leave your shoes with Talia's," her mom instructed, as I took of my sneakers and dumped them with Talia's. I hung up my jacket on the coat rack after Talia had done the same.

Talia led me upstairs to what I assumed was her bedroom, and she told me to sit on her bed as she grabbed a remote that I realised operated the TV that was mounted to her bedroom wall.

"You're so lucky!" I said, gesturing at the TV.

"I know right," Talia said. "I begged and begged Mom for it, and she finally agreed last Christmas!"

That made me wonder how much it would take for Mom to agree to buy me one of my own. Knowing her, she probably wouldn't agree to it anyway, but who says it wouldn't be worth asking at least?

Talia asked me if there was any particular shows that I wanted to watch, but I had no idea what would be available on Netflix, and so I let her choose. In the end, she told me that she had chosen a show called Riverdale.

I had never heard of show so I was excited to see what it was about. A couple of episodes in, I was already devising a plan to make Mom get a subscription to Netflix so I could continue watching the show when I got home.

About half an hour later, Talia's mom walked in, with what looked and smelt like chocolate chip cookies on a plate in her hand.

"Just a snack to keep you guys going until dinner's ready," Talia's mom said, setting the plate of cookies down on the bed in between Talia and I.

I immediately took one of the cookies, and took a huge bite, as I hadn't realised just how hungry the sight of them had made me feel.

"These are heavenly!" I said, wishing that I could eat them all time, day in day out.

"I know right," Talia said. "My mom literally is the best cook ever!"

"Couldn't agree more," I said, through a mouthful of cookie.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 19 – Joey

{A/N: Along with Joey, a few other characters who were in the original series are going to come back, but I won't say much about who exactly it'll be because of course I don't want to spoil it for you guys. Joey will be a series regular from this point on, although he will probably be disappearing and coming back throughout the rest of the stories. Also Joey's sister Gina plays the role of his agent and just general supporter.}

"Joey!"

I rolled over, burrowing deeper into the duvet, not wanting to get up.

"Joseph Tribbiani!"

I gave up on trying to stay sleeping because whoever was at the door had started banging on it so hard that I was just desperate for it to stop before it gave me a headache. Sleep could wait, I said to myself, swinging my legs round to the edge of the bed, rubbing my eyes before standing up and walking over to the door to open it.

This was my apartment that my sister and agent/PA/manager Gina had bought me when I had bagged my first proper role in a film and moved to Los Angeles for it, so there were only a few people that could be at the door. Most of the time it was Gina.

I opened the bedroom door and saw that it was Gina. She had her own key to get into the apartment as I had given a spare copy to her, in part because of her job and in part because she was of course my sister, and therefore I trusted her wholeheartedly.

"I'm guessing you aren't aware that you don't have long until you need to be on set for Vengeance of Darkness," Gina said, on eyebrow cocked as she surveyed the bedroom, almost disapprovingly.

"Shit," I muttered wearily, as I still felt very much asleep.

"I'll go get you a coffee if you promise to start making yourself look more presentable," Gina said, knowing that she often would be able to sway me with a bargain. "And, no, even clean pyjamas don't count."

I was too tired even to roll my eyes in response to Gina.

I finally managed to persuade her that I would have no problems with staying awake, so she went off to get me not only a coffee, but also to bring my breakfast up here, as I managed to persuade her to let me have my breakfast up here rather than having to get up and go to the kitchen diner to eat.

I sifted through my wardrobe, ending up settling on a clean white shirt and jean pants to wear for the day. The character I played in the film was a businessman, so I hoped that what I was wearing would be okay enough, even if I had to swap the jeans for something a little more professional-looking when I arrived on set.

"That's more like it," Gina said when she came back into my bedroom, carrying a tray laden with a mug of coffee and bacon and eggs on toast.

"Thank you very much," I said, as Gina placed the tray down beside me on the bed.

"You're welcome," Gina said, getting up to leave the room. "Bring the tray down when you're finished and are completely ready to walk out the door."

I nodded in acknowledgement, although I highly detested the expectation to be so productive in the morning even when it was so early in the morning.

Once I had finished the food and done a few other things, I walked out of the bedroom with my phone in hand, shutting the door behind me as I walked to the kitchen. I set the tray down beside the sink, where Gina had already filled it up with soapy bubbles, clearly intending to wash it up before we had to leave.

"I'm just going to wash this up and then we'll be ready to leave," Gina said, dumping the tray in the sink and beginning to wash up as I moved to sit on the sofa in the diner part of the kitchen and started scrolling through my social media.

My Twitter and Instagram accounts were public, I had kept Facebook just for family and close friends. I decided to check Facebook first.

At the top of my status, something that Ross had posted a couple of days ago caught my eye. I clicked to expand the post, and as I read it, I felt my heart sink.

I'd liked Judy, even though I hadn't known her awfully well, but I knew more than anything just how much she had meant to Mon and Ross. A pang of homesickness washed over me, as I wished I could be back in New York to comfort them both, and the kids.

I decided to comment that I was keeping them in my thoughts, and that they could call me any time they wanted to, and hoped that that would be enough for the moment at least and tried to push the uneasy feeling that had started to bother me to the back of my thoughts.

I heard the sound of a car pulling up as Gina finished the last of washing and turned to face me. "That'll be your driver," she said, drying her hands on the dishcloth by the sink. "You go get in and I'll meet you there in a couple of minutes."

"Okay," I said, walking out from the kitchen and grabbing my sneakers and jacket on my way out of the apartment.

I made my way down the apartment block stairs until I came to the entrance, and pushed open the double doors, hoping that there wouldn't be too many paps waiting for me.

Luckily, there weren't any, and so I was just able to get straight into the car without any unwanted attention. Gina joined me in the car shortly afterwards, and we then set off to the studios.

The driver and Gina talked for a while during the journey, whilst I attempted to wake myself a little more so I was prepared for the impending influx of human contact that I was about to witness.

When we arrived on the set, a small gathering of paparazzi were stood at the bollards near the entrance. Gina and I stepped out of the car, as a couple of security cops came round from where they must have been staged to wait for us or any other members of the cast. They escorted us through the entrance, fending off the paparazzi's calls out to me. Nevertheless, they still managed to get photos of me, which I braced myself to be haunted by later.

"Ah! Joey! Gina!" the director, Paul said, as he came over, sounding his like his usually cheerful self. "Good to see you!"

As he spoke, he came up to me and gave me a friendly slap on the back. He shook hands with Gina, and then started talking to me again.

"You should go straight to your dressing room, Joey," he instructed, "to drop off your stuff and then Gina should see you to wardrobe and hair and make-up."

Paul must have noticed somehow that I had awoken much later than usual, and was therefore less prepped than would be up to his standard.

Gina nodded and started ushering me towards my dressing room, despite my silent protests that I knew the way perfectly well on my own.

When we got to the dressing room trucks, I went straight into my own so I wouldn't have to converse yet with any of the other cast. I dumped my jacket on the sofa and took a handful of candy from the display bowl that had been filled up recently, clearly in anticipation of my arrival as most people on set knew how much I loved food.

"Don't fill up too much already," Gina said, surprising me slightly as I had temporarily forgotten that she was also here.

I glared at her, but resisted the temptation to go back for another handful nevertheless.

"Let's get straight to prep," Gina commanded, as I begrudgingly followed her out of the truck.

When we arrived, I was ushered straight into wardrobe by my stylist, Daisy.

"Well, this is an improvement from your usual choices of clothing," Daisy commented, tutting disapprovingly as she sifted through one of the racks of clothing.

I rolled my eyes, earning a glare from Gina, as she had clearly noticed it even if Daisy hadn't.

Daisy insisted that I switch up the jeans for some pants that reminded me of the stereotypical businessmen that you think of when you see those kind of people in movies and shows. Usually I found these type of pants considerably uncomfortable, but luckily the pair I was wearing seemed to fit perfectly without requiring any kind of adjustments.

"Are you going straight to hair and make-up after this?" Daisy asked.

"Yup," I said, nodding.

Once Daisy was done with me, Gina and I walked back down the steps of the truck and walked to the one that was a few metres away. It housed the hair and make-up team.

Rolling my eyes yet again at the thought of how much they would probably insist doing on me, I followed Gina up the steps to the door of the truck and walked in after Gina, slamming the door shut behind me.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 20 – Mike

"Are we doing anything this weekend?" I asked Phoebe, bringing my first coffee mug of the day to the table, where she was already sitting.

"I don't think so," Phoebe asked, her expression looking a little confused. "Why do you ask?"

"I thought we could maybe have the others over," I said, watching Phoebe's face light up at the idea as I spoke and she realised who I was referring to. "That is, if everyone is well enough to be able to come."

Even though I didn't much want to think about the fact that Rachel's condition might put a spanner in the works of us being able to do anything together, it was a necessary consideration.

Phoebe nodded, as she clearly understood exactly what I meant, even though she was of course reluctant to verbalise it.

"I'll go get my phone to text Ross and Mon to see if they can make Saturday," Phoebe said to me, standing up and walking over to where her phone was charging.

She bought her phone back over to the table, and started tapping away at the screen. I pressed the home button on my own phone, and my lock screen flashed up. The centralised time stamp told me that it was 7.45am in the morning, which meant that I had just about half an hour before it was necessary that I get out the door, and even less for Pheebs and the kids.

"Obviously not to take away from what you're doing," I started to say, "but it's quarter two and I know you've got to get yourself and the kids to school."

"Okay," Phoebe said, still tapping away at her phone, clearly having not completely registered what I'd been saying.

"Oh shit!" she exclaimed, not even a minute later, as I saw her eyes dart across the room to look at the wall clock in the far corner of the kitchen. "I gotta go get ready!"

As I tried not to laugh, Phoebe stood up and pocketed her phone, clearly on her way to go upstairs.

I left my mug at the sink and then followed Phoebe upstairs to get ready myself. One of us would get round to doing the dishes later.

I go dressed quickly and then used the bathroom. Afterwards, I walked across the landing to the twins' bedroom, and saw that the door was slightly ajar, and so it was most likely going to be all right just to go in and say goodbye without disturbing them getting ready.

Both of them were sitting on the bed, watching something on the screen of the iPad that Phoebe and I had gifted them to share last Christmas.

"Good to see that you are both packed for school," I said, taking a seat on the bed next to them.

Chris was first to acknowledge my presence. "Oh, hey Dad," he said, shifting the iPad off of his lap so that it was now completely on Addie's. Addie must have felt Chris shuffling slightly because she looked up, now realising I was there and preparing to listen to whatever she thought I wanted to say to her and her brother.

"I just came to say the usual goodbye," I said, as Addie started to navigate her way towards for me for a hug.

Chris moved further up the bed so I could reach Addie, and then came back down so he could have his own hug.

Once I was satisfied that both of them were happy, I stopped off back in Phoebe and I's bedroom to pick up my briefcase, and then made the trek downstairs.

When I was completely ready to walk out the door, I called for Phoebe to come from wherever she was so I could say goodbye to her and wish her a good day and all the other usual sentiments.

She came running from the direction of the kitchen, looking a little flustered when she paused in front of the staircase bannister, leaning against it for support whilst she got her breath back.

"I didn't mean to send you running," I apologised, feeling a little bad at her physical state.

"It's fine," she said, a little croakily. She cleared her throat, and then moved off the bannister to lean into me for a hug.

Once we broke apart, I opened the front door and started walking towards my car, looking back once to smile at Phoebe, who was waving at me from the door frame.

I turned on the radio and started up the ignition, backing out of the parking space, seeing Phoebe continue to wave at me as I drove down the road.

I reached the roundabout that would take me to the highway that would take me all the way into central New York, where my work for the day was.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 21 – Phoebe

"Kids, can one of you get the doorbell?" I yelled, from the kitchen where I was making some of the finishes touches to the food that I was making for lunch, which was a BBQ.

I heard the patter of footsteps down the hallway and felt confident whoever was at the door wouldn't be kept waiting for much longer.

From the noise at the door that followed, I couldn't quite tell whether Ross and Rachel had arrived or whether it was Monica and Chandler. That changed however, when the sound of multiple footsteps got louder and Chris burst through the kitchen door, closely followed by Rachel, Ross and their three kids.

"Hi, Pheebs," Rachel said, as I dropped the salad tongs that I had been using down onto the chopping and walked over to join her and the others.

"How are you doing?" I asked Rachel whilst hugging her gently, conscious to keep the concern I was feeling towards her as far away from being in my tone as possible, as she didn't need to be worrying about me as well as everything else that was already going on.

"Not bad," she answered, though her tone seemed a little wearier and tired than usual. I guess that was to be expected, although it didn't help the already uneasy feeling I had towards her situation.

"That's good," I said, feeling satisfied about how convincingly happy I sounded, despite knowing that of course I was far from that. I hoped it would ease off a little as we got further into the day, because I did desperately want to enjoy this get together, particularly as it may end up being one of our last for quite a while.

After hugging Rachel, I proceeded to do the same to Ross and all their kids. Afterwards, I went back over to the stove and continued arranging and preparing the salad and other food for later.

Meanwhile, I could see that Ross and Rachel had made themselves comfortable on the couch and Chris was entertaining Ben and Lara. I hadn't noticed where Emma had gone, but presumably Ross and Rachel knew, and so I didn't think anything more of it.

Not too long after, Mike walked into the kitchen with Mon, Chandler and the twins in tow. Erica rushed over to hug Lara, as the door opened once again and Addie joined us. She looked a little hesitant at first, perhaps a little overwhelmed by the sudden amount of people in the room, before Erica gestured over to her to join her and Lara, and she was pulled into a group hug between the three of them.

Chris left the room with Ben and Jack in tow, presumably to go upstairs or something, leaving the other adults chatting and the girls to do their own thing.

I wrapped the salad bowl in cling film and then wedged it into a space within the fridge, before joining the others, as I had done all the food prep that was needed for the BBQ at the present moment.

"I should probably go get the BBQ going," I heard Mike say as I joined them.

"I'll help," Chandler offered. Mike accepted the offer, and Ross joined them, presumably more for the chance to be able to talk to them as opposed to actually wanting to help cook.

"That was a brave move from Mike," Mon said, sounding a little surprised. It took me a moment to realise that she was probably saying that because she was the one who always insisted on cooking – with good reason – but was understandably a little questioning toward Chandler's cooking abilities.

"I'm sure he's better than you might think," I said, attempting to fight Chandler's corner a little.

"Maybe so," Mon shrugged, not quite agreeing with me but not quite disagreeing either.

"I feel ya, Mon," Rachel added, clearly referring to Ross. "I feel ya."

Mon snorts with laughter in response to Rachel's comment.

"Is it okay if we go upstairs for a while?" Erica asked me.

I nodded that it was fine, and Erica, Addie and Lara proceeded to leave the room and walk upstairs. Since now a space on the couch had freed up, I made myself comfortable, feeling glad for the time I would get before Mike would instruct me on what needed to be done next for the BBQ.

"How have things been for the both of you?" I asked, realising afterwards that there was no real point in asking apart from for the purpose of making small talk, which would be futile either way since I doubt they wanted to have to talk about the issues going on in their life right now.

There was an uncomfortable silence that followed, almost definitely because of my question.

"Have either of you heard from Joey recently?" Rachel asked, breaking the silence much to my relief.

"Not really, no," I replied. "Why do you ask?"

"He spoke to Ross whilst I was in hospital and said that he really missed the five of us, and said that there was apparently some scenes coming up for his film that need to be shot in New York, and that he wanted to see us then," Rachel explained.

"If he or Gina – I think that's his agent now as well as obviously being his sister – need somewhere to stay whilst they're here, we're always welcome to having them," I said.

"I'll make sure to tell Ross to tell Joey," Rachel said, sounding as happy as we all felt at the possibility of seeing him again. I think we could all agree that it had definitely been far too long since we'd last seen each other.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 22 – Joey

"Cut! That's a wrap on shooting for the morning!"

As the director Paul started to order around the other members of the set to start packing up, I saw Gina start walking towards me, a smile on her face as she was clearly pleased with how I had done during the last scene.

"That was some of your best work that I've ever seen," Gina said, smiling and bringing me into a hug.

"Thank you so much," I said, truly grateful that I had impressed my big sister.

"Let's go get lunch as I'm sure you're hungry," Gina said, after we had finished hugging. I walked with her towards whether the makeshift canteen was for the cast and other people working on the set.

"You know me too well," I said, laughing.

Gina gave me a playful shove as we walked, clearly harder than she had intended as I skidded off the side of the makeshift sidewalk.

"Oops," Gina said, sounding a little embarrassed as she realised what had happened. "I didn't mean to shove you that hard," she added, clearly starting to feel a little bad.

"It's totally okay," I said, trying to reassure her.

She seemed satisfied that I wasn't injured and so we kept on walking, finally reaching the tent where the canteen had been set up after what felt like literally 5 hours, even though it had of course been much less.

I grabbed a plate from the stack waiting at the end of the buffet-style feast, and started piling my plate high up with the wonderful food on display.

Rather than waiting for Gina to be done with selecting the food that she wanted, I went ahead and found a seat in the designated seating area. There was a large group of the main cast sitting in a circle, and I considered joining them but then thought the better of it, as they seemed to be in the middle of a conversation and I figured my presence would just make things awkward.

Nevertheless, I still wasn't alone as I did have Gina for company, and that was sufficient enough for me at this moment.

"Have you heard from any of the gang back in New York?" Gina asked, taking me off guard slightly as I just didn't expect to her asked such a question.

"Not personally, although I did know that Ross and Mon lost their Mom a while ago," I said, a pang of sadness hitting me, as I had known Judy for long enough to know how much of a hit her death would've been for her family.

"Have you reached out to either of them since then?" Gina asked.

"Not really," I said, feeling an additional wave of guilt wash over me.

"Message them when you're done eating," Gina said, less of a suggestion than an actual command.

Once I had dumped my plate in the trash, I whipped out my phone and selected the messaging app. I clicked on the thread I had with Ross, and started typing out my message.

I received a reply almost as soon as I had sent the message. Ross was clearly happy to hear from me. The actual message was saying how wonderful it was to hear from me and that he and the rest of the family hoped that I was doing well.

I replied that I was doing well, and that he should send my love to everyone. I added that if he wanted to call me, I had some time now for him to be able to do that.

I only just had time to get out of the canteen and find somewhere where I would be able to talk to Ross without worrying that someone may end up overhearing our conversation, before Ross's caller ID started flashing on my phone screen.

I tapped the screen to accept the call, and moved my phone to my ear. "Hey, buddy," I said, a wave of happiness washing over me as it dawned on me that I was able to have my first proper conversation with Ross in far too long.

"How are you?" Ross answered, sounding equally as happy to be talking to me as I was.

"Not doing too bad, you?" I replied, hoping that I wasn't about to open a can of worms that it was too soon for him to comfortably be able to talk about.

"Managing all right," he replied, a slightly wearier edge to his tone now.

"I wish I could be there for you guys in person right now," I said, feeling pang of guilt that I wasn't, but also due to the fact that there was no way that I could change the situation so I was there.

"Cheers, bud," Ross said, sounding genuinely grateful that I was thinking of him and the others. I was about to start talking again when Ross added, "I guess I'd better tell you this before you find out some other way."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, genuinely unsure what he was about to say, but also with a slight feeling of unease in anticipation of the answer.

"Rachel has cancer," Ross said.

"What?" I asked, surprisingly even myself that I had as it must have been some kind of reflex action or something that had compelled me to speak.

"Rachel has cancer," Ross repeated, clearly unsure whether I had heard properly the first time but also as if it pained him greatly to repeat those three words.

"What type?" I asked, trying to clear my brain of whatever kind of fog must have taken it over since Ross had dropped the bombshell.

"Cervical," he answered. I had no idea what that was, but regardless I knew it must be serious because of course any type of cancer is serious.

"Is she having treatment or…" I asked, trailing off as I spoke.

"Chemotherapy," Ross said. "She actually started her first bout today."

"Okay," I said, attempting to swallow the lump that had lodged itself in my throat.

"I'll of course keep you updated on the progress of her condition," Ross said.

"Thanks man," I said. "I gotta go," I added, as I realised that the lunch break was most likely to be over by now.

"Okay then," Ross said. "Goodbye for now."

I hung up and then made my way back into the food tent. Gina was still sitting in the seats where we had sat for lunch, now accompanied by some of her friends that worked on set.

"Everything okay?" she asked, as I retook my seat beside her.

"I'll tell you later," I said.

She looked a little hurt by tone but seemed to realise that whatever it was needed me to wait until later to say.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 23 – Mike

"Phoebe, should I wash up the breakfast stuff?" I yelled, up the stairs.

"Yes!" she yelled back, as I started to make my way back into the kitchen to start the job.

I finished it pretty quickly, and started to make my way back upstairs, deciding that checking on the twins just to make sure that they were getting ready as they were supposed to be.

The door to their bedroom was ajar so I just pushed it open. They were both dressed and were looking at something on their shared iPad, both laying on their bed, feet resting against the headboard.

"Just making sure that you guys were saying," as I started walking towards the door on my way out, as they clearly hadn't heard me but there was no need for me to stay here either.

I walked across the landing to Phoebe and I's bedroom, intending on starting to get ready for the day's work.

I found a clean suit, and got dressed quickly, going into the en-suite bathroom to shave and do a few other necessities. When I came back out, I expected to see Phoebe back from wherever she was, but she wasn't. I started thinking through where she would most likely be, the family bathroom, and so I left our room and walked to it.

The door was closed, and so I knocked on it, knowing that it had to be Phoebe.

"Pheebs, are you okay?" I asked loudly.

"Yeah," she said back.

"Can I come in, then?" I asked, feeling the urge to need to see that she was okay so I would be able to feel reassured that she definitely was all right.

I heard the key turn in the lock, and saw the door swing open. Phoebe stood in the doorway, her face covered in a light layer of what was either sweat or water from the shower, her hair piled up in a bun, looking a little damp. Other than that, she looked as she normally did, and I felt satisfied she was all right.

"Did you have a shower, then?" I inquired.

Phoebe hesitated, then pulled me into the bathroom, closing the door behind us.

"You can't tell anyone yet," she started saying. "But I'm pretty certain that I'm pregnant."

I felt my jaw drop. This was such good news!

"Did you take the test?" I asked her, feeling excitement start to bubble up inside me.

"A few days ago," she replied. "And I had my first bout of morning sickness this morning, hence the sweat and damp hair," she added, gesturing to her hair and face.

"Can I get you anything?" I asked, particularly wishing that she would sort of take the lead in this, as my knowledge of taking care of pregnancies was a little rusty.

"Cup of my usual tea would be lovely," she answered, making her way towards our bedroom as I began walking downstairs to the kitchen.

I sat on my phone whilst I waited for the tea to brew, and then started walking back upstairs carefully, so as not to spill the drink all over me.

"Thanks so much, babe," she said.

"I'll take the kids to school today so that you can rest," I said, looking at the time on my phone to make sure that I wasn't making some a promise that I wouldn't be able to keep if timings were going to end up being too tight.

It turned out that the timings were going to be fine, I realised with a sigh of relief.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	24. Chapter 24

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 24 – Phoebe

"We're back!" I heard Mike yell, as footsteps that could only be the twins thundered down the corridor in through the open kitchen door.

Addie skidded to a stop a few metres away from the door frame, as Chris followed, almost slamming into her and knocking her over.

"You two are enthusiastic to see me," I said, feeling happy that they were so desperate to see their mother.

"Actually, we just came for the food," Chris joked.

Mike had joined the three of us by now, looking a little flustered as he shot a look at Chris.

"Mom knows I was only joking!" Chris protested, as Mike looked at me, as if waiting for me to confirm this. I nodded, and Chris whooped triumphantly.

"Told you so!" he yelled in Mike's face.

Shaking his head in mock disbelief, Mike came over to me and kissed me gently.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Chris miming throwing up, and saw Addie start to laugh. One day they would understand, I thought with a grin.

Chris and Addie walked over to the fridge and started going through it, clearly thinking that I wouldn't try and stop them if I was with Dad. On the contrary, I looked at Mike and he let me go to challenge them.

"If you guys stop looking now, I'll show you the secret stash of chocolate brownies I have," I said, with satisfaction as I saw both of them stop immediately.

I cackled. "You both fell for it," I said, through gasps of laughter.

Chris shot a look at Addie, clearly pissed.

"Dad, tell Mom how unfair this is!" Addie whined, looking at Dad clearly so that he would take their side in this.

Mike looked at me, then shrugged at Addie.

They both started looking as if they were about to run out, until I remembered this morning. I shot a look at Mike, who quickly caught onto what I was thinking and then nodded.

"Sit down at the table," I instructed the twins, as Mike and I also walked over to the table to sit with them.

"We have some news for the both of you," Mike started saying, as the twins looked on eagerly.

I shot a look at Mike as if to ask whether he was okay with me spilling the secret, and he nodded, indicating that it was.

"You guys are getting a baby brother or sister," I said, smiling widely as the reality that I was pregnant set in.

The twins erupted in shrieks, looking at each other excitedly.

One look Mike's way told me that he was happy to see their reaction as I was.

"This is the best day ever!" Addie declared, getting up from her seat and starting to jump up and down out of excitement.

Chris joined her. A couple of minutes later, though, I saw that both of them were on the floor.

"What happened?" I asked, assuming that one of them had tripped over the other and sent each other flying.

"I tripped over Addie's foot, then she kind of fell on top of me," Chris explained, rubbing his ankle.

"I can go get some ice for that," I said, getting up from my seat at the table before anyone could protest.

I walked over to the fridge and started searching for an ice pack. Realising that there wasn't one available to be used for some reason, I settled on a big bag of garden peas.

Handing the bag to Chris as I passed him and Addie, still on the floor, I sat back down in my seat at the table.

"Shall we get pizza or something to celebrate?" I asked Mike and the twins.

The twins started nodding vehemently, a reaction that I would've expected from the two of them, and so I got out my phone and started ordering Domino's pizza.

I wasn't sure how I would break the news of being pregnant to the others, as although hearing positive news like this might be appreciated, then again it was another massive event in the midst of all that was going on in their lives at the moment and may just be a source of overwhelm.

The twins announced that they were going up to their room, so I was left with Mike.

"I'm so glad the twins are as excited about the new addition to the family as we are," Mike said, smiling widely.

"I am too, babe," I said, moving closer to him for another hug.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	25. Chapter 25

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 25 – Addie

{A/N: I'm jumping a few days ahead with the timeline for this book as I was starting to run out of ideas for the plot}

"So we can go anywhere here that we want?" I asked Mom and Dad.

They nodded, and I started jumping up and down with Chris. When Mom and Dad had first suggested the idea of going to a theme park at the weekend, we had gotten so excited that I had started a countdown on a piece of paper in the bedroom.

Mom checked both our wrists to make sure that the wristband we had to put on to be able to enter the theme park was secure, and the minute that we had gotten through the barriers, I followed Chris to wherever he was running to.

He stopped in front of a line that was before the entrance to some kind of rollercoaster ride thing. Because of the trees that shaded the entrance and the vast majority of the ride from where we were standing, I couldn't quite see the whole of the ride so it would be mostly a surprise to what the ride actually consisted of in terms of twists and turns.

Even though this made me slightly more hesitant to board the ride, I followed Chris through the gate to wait at the end of the line. We chatted for a while whilst the line moved until we got to the second place in the line, and could see the full extent of what we were signing up for by boarding this ride. Somehow, up close the rollercoaster seemed a little more daunting than what I had hoped for, but nevertheless I boarded it anyways with Chris.

I sat on the side that was nearest to the platform that we had used to board our seats, somehow convinced that by sitting here I was going to be even a little less scared. A couple of people got in the next two seats in front of us, then the manager of the ride yelled for the ride to start and we were off.

I started screaming as we hurtled down what seemed like quite a considerable drop, even though of course we were on train tracks and were highly unlikely to actually end up falling. Not wanting to take my eyes off from the front view of the rollercoaster for too long, I shot a glance at Chris to see how he was finding it. Unlike me, he looked almost completely unbothered by how fast the ride was going.

I made a mental note to ask him later how on earth he could possibly be that calm. By the time the ride was over, I was surprised to find myself wishing that we could do it all over again.

"Wanna go once more?" Chris asked, turning to look at me, as if he had read my thoughts at that exact moment.

"Sure," I said, as one of the ride attendants came over to help secure us in the cart.

We went round a second time, this time with me screaming less out of fear and more out of excitement and the thrill of the ride. I was also trying to think of what rides we go on next, but as I discovered I was pretty clueless on that topic, Chris and I would have to look at one of the maps that was around the park to pick our next choice.

The both of us got off the ride, having decided that a third round would be too much to handle at the moment. Fortunately, there was a map of the rest of the park not too far away from the entrance of the ride, so we were able to make our decision for the next ride pretty quickly.

"Not any water rides yet," I said, knowing that with the weather of New York being so fall-like at the moment, that if we did go on any water rides, it would take much longer than I could cope with to fully dry off.

"Agreed," Chris said, clearly having noticed the weather himself and had similar thoughts to me on the matter.

In the end, we decided on walking a little further on to the rides that were either rollercoasters or slightly more peaceful ones like teacups and the swaying boat thing. There was one that were you sat in a seat and then shot up a metal panel thing and then were dropped down again.

After I pointed it out to Chris, we joined the line and started gearing up again for the ride.

"This looks a little more peaceful than the last one," I said to Chris, secretly feeling relieved by this.

"Don't be fooled," Chris said, as I looked at him questioningly, not a 100% sure what he meant by this. He shrugged, which bugged me a little, as I hoped my look would prompt him to explain what he meant.

In the end, I decided to forget about it rather than picking a battle with him, and soon enough it was our turn to board the ride.

Chris and I sat together in two of the seats that were next to each other, two complete strangers on each side of us. One of them was a lady, who shot a look at us, as if she thought we were too young to be on a ride like this by ourselves.

I looked at Chris, who gave me a look that I knew was a hint to ignore them. The ride managed yelled for the ride to begin a couple of seconds later, and soon enough we were off. At first the ride was as peaceful as I had expected, but then suddenly it sped up and the drops started getting much sharper.

I decided that holding my breath every time we dropped was not helping me stay calmer, and so I gave up on that, closing my eyes as if not being able to see what was happening might make it feel a little more enjoyable and a little less like I was about to fall any minute now.

We ended up having three rounds on this ride, as I discovered that once you had done it once, Chris and I could both agree that it was highly addictive.

By the time we had finished our third ride, which was like teacups, except the louder you screamed, the faster one of the ride attendants would spin your cup, and so rather than it being a peaceful ride, it was yet another where you felt like your neck could snap at any minute, the both of us were hungry enough that we started tracing our way to the café where Mom and Dad said they'd be waiting.

We found it with the help of one of the strangers who were at the theme park, and saw Mom and Dad sitting at a table in the far corner.

"Hey kids, how was the rides?" Dad asked, as Chris and I took respective seats at the table.

"Pretty good," I said. "I mean, I definitely felt like I was going to have a heart attack more than a few times, but hey have you really been on a ride if you haven't ever felt like that?"

Dad laughed, even though I could tell it was at my comment rather than my fear, so I wasn't offended.

"What about you, Chris?" Dad asked, as I noticed Mom started to shuffle through the menus, as if getting ready to pass them our way.

"I was sad to have to break for food, to be honest," Chris admitted, taking the menu that Mom had offered him.

I took my own, flicking through to see the lunch menu options. I ended up deciding on tomato and cheese pasta and garlic bread with Diet Coke.

Whilst we waited for the food to come, Dad and Mom talked to us about what they had already been on. Apparently, they had been waiting for after lunch to go on any of the big rollercoaster rides until after lunch, but they had been on some of the calmer rides like the bumper cars.

"We actually had a competition to see who could hit the most cars," Mom said.

"Who won?" Chris asked, beating me to the chance of asking me myself.

"It was me," Dad said, as Mom started to protest, clearly wanting to challenge what he had said.

"I think you'll find that it was me," Mom said, indignantly.

"I think the fuck not," Dad said, and then realised what he had said, as Mom glared at him. "Oops," he said, looking around sheepishly. "Excuse my language."

Mum was shaking her head, as if she couldn't believe what she had just witnessed, but then we all heard her start to laugh.

Soon enough we were all in peals of laughter, and only managed to stop when we saw the waitress walking over with our food.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	26. Chapter 26

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 26 – Chris

"Don't forget to take your shoes and coats off!" Mom yelled, as she knew that both Addie and I had ended up collecting water in our boots and still had pretty badly soaked coats from the water rides we'd been on earlier.

Stopping where I was on the carpet in the entrance to the house, I walked back out onto the sidewalk, both boots in my hands. Tipping them upside down, I managed to get the worst of the water out of them, but the insoles were still pretty soaked as they apparently were very good at absorbing the water. Nevertheless, I was sure we had somewhere to dry them.

Leaving them by the foot of the stairs and hanging my coat up to dry on the coat rack as I went, I started to make my way upstairs to my bedroom.

On the way there, I bumped into dad, who had clearly gotten upstairs before me.

"Sorry, Dad," I said, apologetically.

"Don't worry about it," he said, easing the guilt I felt. "Accidents happen all the time."

I nodded in agreement, letting Dad pass me when it became clear that he wanted to go downstairs, then continuing on to my room.

When I was actually in my room again, I set up my Xbox to start playing Fortnite to pass the time.

Hours must have gone by, because for some reason I was in daze when Addie came into my room.

"What do you want?" I asked, still really unsure why she was here.

Addie looked a little taken aback by what I said, so I realised that it must have come out harsher than I had intended it to. "Just to say that I overheard Mom and apparently Uncle Joey is coming to stay from New York," she said, her face lighting up with excitement as she spoke.

"Great!" I said, as it took me a moment to remember who Joey was, and then I started to feel the excitement starting to hit me.

"Dad also wanted me to let you know that if you want to be involved in dinner negotiations, now's your time to do so," Addie added.

"Wait," I said, again confused. "What time is it?"

"7.30pm," Addie answered, clearly having read off the clock in my room.

"Tell Mom and Dad that I don't mind what they get us, as long as it's food," I said, as Addie saluted me jokily then left.

I turned back to the game, hoping that I wouldn't be interrupted again for at least a few hours.

Again I didn't notice how much time had passed until somehow the WiFi that was needed to keep Fortnite connected somehow stopped working. For some reason, I also hadn't received the food that I'd been promised as well.

I switched my Xbox off, with the intention of going downstairs to 1) figure out why the WiFi wasn't working and 2) get some food.

When I reached the kitchen, Mom and Dad were sitting at the table, sharing two now empty takeaway pizza boxes.

I started looking around the kitchen to see where my pizza had been left, and didn't stop until I heard Dad start to speak.

"Looking for your pizza?" he asked, looking unnervingly gleeful at my struggles to find it.

"Yeah," I said, deciding that keeping my chill right now was the best course of action.

"Maybe you would've found if you had come downstairs two hours ago when we called you," Dad added, as I now knew that I was in deep trouble as I had feared.

"I was busy," I replied, not seeing how they could argue against me when I was pretty sure that Addie had been in a similar situation before, and even so, I couldn't hear them from my room.

"So was your sister, I'm sure," Dad said, clearly unwilling to budge. "She still came down though."

"Why was the WiFi switched off?" I asked, despite almost definitely knowing the answer.

"So you would come down and speak to us regarding your behaviour," Dad explained.

"Well, I'm here now," I added, feeling like there was no reason for Dad to still be angry with me.

Dad looked at Mom, and for a moment there was silence between them, as if they were both trying to think over what to do next.

In the end, it was Mom who spoke. "In future, please try and make sure that you are downstairs when food is being served, but you're free to go now, as long as you apologise to your father and I for being so rude and careless this time," she said.

Even though I wasn't sure if my behaviour could go as far to be described as careless, I still apologised, feeling that this little detail in this situation was far too insignificant and unimportant to pick a battle with them over it.

I returned back to my room, holding the pizza box that I had retrieved out of the fridge on my way back up, and sighed in relief when I saw the familiar welcome Fortnite welcome page on my TV screen, as the WiFi must have been switched back on as Mom and Dad promised.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	27. Chapter 27

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 27 – Phoebe

{A/N: So I'm back with this book, just because stupid me didn't realise that because of the way I started off all three books, all the plots end up interlinked and so therefore if I only stuck to two of the books, I would be manically jumping chapters and it just wouldn't make sense.}

"That was Monica, by the way," I said to Mike, who was still sitting at the breakfast bar.

"Oh, what did she want?" Mike asked me, as I joined him in the seat beside his.

"Just to ask if I wanted to go for coffee today," I explained. "So is it okay if you end up taking the kids for me today?"

"Sure," Mike said, not sounding annoyed or anything like that about the request, which was reassuring to me. "What time did you guys decide to go for?"

"In about half an hour," I said, looking down at the time stamp on my phone lock screen as I spoke.

"You better get going upstairs then," Mike said to me as I took my breakfast dishes over to the sink, and started walking up to Mike and I's bedroom to get changed for something that would look more presentable for when I went out.

I managed to find a shirt and jeans and went to the en-suite to get changed and clean myself up a bit. The getting change part was quick, but I found myself slowing right down when I couldn't choose whether it was going to be necessary to wear make up for the day or not. In the end, I decided that I would do a light layer.

Once I had done everything in the bathroom, I checked my phone once again, and saw that I had about ten minutes before I was meeting Monica left. I flew down the stairs and shouted goodbye to Mike and the kids whilst putting my sneakers on and then got into the car to start driving to Starbucks.

I managed to pull into the Starbucks parking lot with about two minutes to go from the agreed time that we were supposed to meet, but I figured that there was a high chance that Mon would've been early, so I parked the car and started walking towards the entrance to Starbucks.

Just as I was pushing the door open, I felt my jean pocket vibrate. I bought out my phone from the pocket, and saw that there was a notification from Monica saying that she had got here a little early. I pocketed my phone again, figuring there was no point in replying with her being already here, and found her sitting on a table in the far right corner.

When she saw me, she stood up from her seat and came over and gave me a huge hug.

We broke apart a few minutes later, and I made myself comfortable in the seat opposite hers. As she started explaining what her week had been like so far, I noticed she was fiddling with a small silver ring at the top of right her ear, which was clearly a recent piercing as this was the first time I'd seen her with it but nevertheless it really suited her.

"What about you?" Monica asked me.

"Just been with Mike and the kids, but not much else," I said.

Monica laughed sympathetically.

"Parenting really can be a pain sometimes," I said, mentally rolling my eyes.

"Tell me about it," Mon added, sounding as worn out as even thinking about parenting made me feel.

"Have you got a coffee ordered yet?" I asked Mon, realising that we had been sitting here for fifteen minutes without having ordered anything, and that the waiters would probably start wondering if we were going to get something or whether we were just sitting here for no apparent reason.

"No," Mon laughed. "What do you want? I'll pay for the both of us."

I began to protest, but it soon became clear, in true Monica Geller style, that there was no way that I was going to win this one.

"Chocolate tea," I said. "And thank you so much again."

"Pheebs, it's nothing," Mon insisted, getting up from her seat and walking over to the counter to order.

Mon came back five minutes later, armed with a tray with her coffee and my tea on it.

"You have no idea how much I needed this," I said, sipping my mug of tea once I had taken it off of the tray.

"I have two of my own twins," Monica said. "So actually, yes, I do."

We both laughed, as it was true that both of us were fully versed in the trials and tribulations of being a parent.

"How have you been doing yourself after everything?" I asked Monica, hoping that I wasn't going too far by reminding her of the events of the past few weeks.

"I'm doing great, honestly," Mon said looking into my eyes, fiddling again with her piercing as she spoke, and there was no reason why I thought that she wasn't being sincere.

"I'm so, so, so glad to hear that," I said, hoping that she knew how happy it made me that she was happy especially when I knew how much must have been going through her mind recently that I couldn't even begin to think about how I'd deal with in a situation like hers.

"It means a lot," Mon said, smiling widely again.

"Is that piercing not painful?" I asked, just genuinely curious.

"Oh, no," Mon said. "I had it done a few months ago, so it's healed."

I must have looked shocked because Mon opened her mouth as if she was about to start explaining.

"I hid it for a couple of months for it to heal and then took the piercing out afterwards," she said. "I started wearing it again a couple of days ago, when I found the earring lying in my jewellery box."

I nodded, because it made more sense now she'd explained.

"For what it's worth," I said, "It looks good on you."

"Thank you so much," Mon said, smiling as if she had heard it many times but even so, it was the best news she had had in a while.

When we'd both finished our drinks, Mon and I's eyes met, in joint agreement that running out of coffee and tea was one of the worst things to happen.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	28. Chapter 28

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 28 – Mike

"Hey Pheebs!" I yelled. "There's someone at the door!"

"Let them in!" Phoebe yelled back, almost immediately.

I opened it as Phoebe had asked me to, not sure who it was going to be. Twisting round the door until I heard the click, I pushed the door open to see Monica standing in the doorway, eyes red as if she had been crying for quite some time. I could also tell that she looked completely and utterly worn out, and I wanted to call Phoebe so she could help her.

"Wait a minute, Monica," I said, closing the door behind her and allowing her to take up a seat on the bottom step of the stairs as I walked up to find Phoebe.

When I reached the landing, I found Phoebe pretty quickly from the not-so-subtle open door to our bedroom.

"Mon's here, and she needs us," I said, as I popped my head around the door.

"I'll be right there," Phoebe answered, pushing the door open and joining me and walking down the stairs with me.

Phoebe immediately put her shoulders round Monica, as I sat awkwardly beside them, not sure what would be the best way of providing comfort to her as Monica cried and cried on Phoebe's shoulder and Phoebe murmured what I was almost certain was words of encouragement.

"Can I get a drink or bring tissues or…" I asked, trailing off as I felt so awkward and nervous.

Phoebe nodded, which I took as a queue for me to go get both. I came back with a tray with drinks of water and a fresh box of tissues, which Phoebe took from the tray as I set it down and tore off the tab that was holding the tissues in the box.

A small heap of tissues emerged beside Monica and Phoebe, which I was on guard to clear up whenever they stopped needing them.

Honestly, I didn't know exactly how long it was but I could tell that both Phoebe and I were glad when Mon seemed to be finally calm enough to be able to explain to us what on earth had gone on to rip her to shreds like this.

"Chandler and I had huge fight over whether I was okay or not and whether I needed his help or not," Mon said, sniffing slightly as she spoke. "And then I got so angry that I just had to leave because I wanted desperately to physically fight him to get all my anger out but I know I couldn't so I ran."

"Oh, Monica," Phoebe wailed, the look on her face meaning that I also witnessed seeing her heart break for Mon as the harsh reality of the situations.

"Do either of the twins know where you are?" Phoebe said as she looked Mon in the eyes, gently holding her hands to reassure her that she wasn't in this alone.

"No," Mon squeaked, sounding as if she would break down any minute if she continued to talk.

"Get her phone," Phoebe instructed to me.

Even though Monica didn't put up a fight against me doing so, it still felt wrong of me to be taking something so personal of Monica's off of her.

"Give it to her so she can text her kids," Phoebe said to me, as I passed Mon the phone.

"I'll go check up on the twins," I said, walking past Phoebe and Monica up the stairs to go into the twins' bedroom.

The door was open, and both of the twins were sat in front of their shared MacBook, watching some kind of film.

"Hey guys," I said.

"Hi, Dad," Addie answered, looking up at me and then nudging Chris.

"Are you guys hungry?" I asked, looking down at my watch because of the fact that I realised it was almost half past seven in the evening and none of us had had anything to eat for dinner yet.

"Yeah," Chris and Addie said in unison.

"I'll talk to Mom about it," I said, "but she's comforting Monica right now, who's probably going to end up staying with us for a while."

Chris and Addie looked excited, until Addie asked, "Why is she upset?"

"Because of some issues that she and Chandler were having," I said, not wanting to go into detail as not only was it inappropriate of me given the twins' age, but also kind of rude of me as I was a friend of Mon's and what had happened between Monica and Chandler was to stay with the people who they had told.

I left the kids in their room, promising that the next time they would see me, it was because I would be bringing them up food.

The bottom stair was empty when I reached it, so Phoebe must have taken Mon into either the kitchen or the living room. I checked the living room first, and saw that I had been completely right to make that assumption. I was so happy to see that Monica looked so much happier, cradling a mug of coffee.

"Hi, Mike," she said as I sat at the table with her and Phoebe. "Sorry I didn't say hi earlier."

"It's fine," I said, feeling like her apology was not necessary. "I just hope you're feeling better now."

"I think so," she answered, smiling weakly.

"Are either of you two hungry?" Phoebe asked, as if reading my mind since I had been waiting for the moment to ask her about it on behalf of the kids.

Mon and I both said we were, and so Phoebe whipped out her phone and started making calls for a takeaway. She went back into the corridor, leaving me alone to make small talk with Mon. I suggested to Mon that she should come and join me on the sofa.

"I'm kinda glad that you guys didn't freak out when I arrived," Monica said to me.

"I think it's you that was freaking out more," I said, laughing a little as Mon did too. "I mean, you're welcome to stay as long as you need to," I added.

"You don't know how grateful that makes me," Mon said, looking as if she was about to cry because she was so grateful.

"Monica, you don't need to thank me because this is what you do for a friend if you're actually a nice person," I said, feeling overwhelmed by how sweet she was being.

Phoebe came back into the room and announced that she had ordered pizza for the five of us.

"I really should give you some money to go towards that pizza," Monica said.

"Take this as me returning favour from when you paid for you and I's coffees," Phoebe said, fending off any more attempts that Mon made to get Phoebe to let her give her some money to be able to help pay for the pizzas.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	29. Chapter 29

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 29 – Phoebe

"Are you okay, Phoebe?" Mike asked me.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, breathing heavily.

"Really though?" Mike prompted, because to be honest he was kind of right that I wasn't doing awfully well in terms of just being very exhausted.

"It's just hard to deal with someone who needs help so fucking badly, but basically won't admit it," I said to Mike, hoping that he would understand enough without me having to be specific.

"She's depressed Phoebe, it's out of your control," Mike said. "So stop burdening yourself with trying to get Monica to go for help – she'll get do it herself in her own time."

"But what if she doesn't?" I said, feeling as if Mike was missing the point even though I knew that he was completely and entirely right. "What if she decides enough is enough and attempts?"

Rather than answering me, Mike started attempting to comfort me as I hadn't realised until now that I was shaking.

Mike ended up setting up a film on my MacBook for us to watch before we went to bed, and then we snuggled up to each other, my head under Mike's arm with a warm blanket between my head and his arm making it feel more comfortable and less bony.

I only woke up in the next morning because of Mike moving me over in the bed and opening the curtains, so I had no choice but to open my eyes as there would be absolutely no way that I would be able to manage to fall asleep when it was so light out.

"I'm going to go check on Monica and the kids," I said, swinging my legs round off the bed and then getting up, grabbing my dressing gown on the way out of the door and putting it on as I walked.

I decided to go into the twins' bedroom first, not wanting to risk accidentally waking Mon up too early especially when she most likely needed all the rest she could get. I pushed the door open, saying 'Good morning!' as I walked over to the windows and drew the curtains, allowing light to flood the room.

Addie rolled over in her bed, as I heard the sound of something hitting the ground not too long afterwards. I walked over to pick up whatever it was that had fallen off the bed, as Addie groaned and then mumbled something that was inaudible.

"What did you say?" I asked out of sheer curiosity to hear what she had actually been saying.

"Just that I'm so damn tired," Addie answered, yawning as if she was so tired that even speaking too up more effort than she had at this present moment.

"You'll feel more awake soon," I reassured Addie, deciding that it would be fine to leave Jack to wake up on his own, although I suspected that Addie would have her part to play in it.

I left their room and started walking towards the guest room on our floor where Mon was staying. The door wasn't open, and so checking my watch to make sure that it wasn't insanely early, I knocked and said, "Monica? It's me, Phoebe, wondering if now is a good time to come check up on you."

I heard a grunt in response, and then the sound of her clearing her throat as if she was preparing to start speaking. "Give me a second to get a sweater," I heard Mon say, as I sat and waited for a couple of seconds to hear the okay signal and then I pushed open the door.

Mon had already opened the curtains, and was sitting on her bed, wearing the aforementioned sweater and shorts with her hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun. She turned to face me when I walked in, as I joined her at the end of the bed.

"Did you manage to sleep well?" I asked her, apprehensive in anticipation of the answer.

"Yeah, kinda," she answered, sounding a little hesitant as she spoke.

"What do you mean by kinda?" I prompted, trying not to sound like I was blatantly prying, despite how good my intentions may be.

"As in once I finally got my brain to shut up, I only got two hours of good sleep," she explained. "I guess I finally understand why Chandler was saying how looks can be deceiving," she added as an afterthought, laughing bitterly.

Despite the fact that this would be absolutely the wrong time to agree with what Mon was saying, I could see how her clear attempts to look less exhausted could be interpreted as being fully rested and with more than enough energy ready for the events of the day.

"If you want a cup of coffee, I'll be downstairs making some," I said, leaving Mon to continue getting ready or whatever she had been doing whilst I left.

I passed Chris on my way to the top of the stairs, on the way to the family bathroom.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," I said as I passed him, and walked down the stairs to the kitchen, where Mike was already busily making coffee and selecting food for breakfast.

"I'll take over for breakfast," I said to Mike, walking over to the pile of food that Mike had already set aside. "By the way, Monica's probably going to come downstairs soon, and she'll be wanting coffee."

"Good to know," Mike said, going back to focusing on making the coffee and tea for everyone.

Just as I had managed to successfully set off all the food that I would be cooking as part of the breakfast ensemble, I heard the door creak and saw Mon walk in.

"Chris wanted me to tell you that he heard breakfast was on its way, and said for me to tell you that there would be no chance that neither he nor Addie would miss it," she said, sounding as if she was finding it hard to keep a straight face whilst she spoke.

"Duly noted," Mike proclaimed, walking over to Mon with a fresh cup of coffee, which she took gratefully from him.

I joined Mike and Monica at the table, making sure that my chair was positioned so that I would be able to keep any eye on the food whilst I joined in with their conversation as best as I could whilst multitasking.

"You feeling any better today?" Mike asked, dodging the small talk and going in with the question that was on both of our minds.

"I'm just dealing with everything as it comes," Mon answered, deliberately dodging giving either of us a less vague answer that we so wanted.

And that's gone so well so far, hasn't it, I was going to add before stopping myself as I felt like however true this might be, that it would still be unfairly harsh at the present moment. Mike eyed me as if he also felt this way, but came to the same silent agreement that it would be unfair to mention this out loud in the present moment.

There were a few minutes spent with me cooking at the stove, and Mon and Mike being busy talking, before the kids came downstairs, and I proclaimed that the food was all done. Mike stood up to help me start taking the various dishes over the table. Mon asked me if there was anything she could be doing and so I asked her to supervise the kids in setting the table.

Once everything was completely sorted, I joined Mon, the kids and Mike at the table, exhaling a deep breath of relief that I was finally able to relax again, knowing that everything had been planned for and was going to go smoothly, which were moments that as I a mother, I relished in the few instances that they were able to happen.

"This looks so lovely, thank you Pheebs," Mon said, as the kids agreed with her.

"The three of you are all so welcome," I said, as Mike affectionately squeezed my arm as his subtle sign of appreciation for the meal. We both locked eyes for a second afterwards, and smiled at each other.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

I think it should also be noted that from now on I will be trying to make chapters longer yet again, as I know there have been an increase in people enjoying my writing, so I really will try hard to pack more into a chapter.


	30. Chapter 30

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 30 – Mike

"It's all right, Pheebs, I'll go and you stay here and look after the kids and Mon," I said to Phoebe, looking her in the eyes across the bed to make sure she knew that I meant it.

Phoebe looked as if she wanted to say something, then faltered and then decided to just say it anyway. "I'll just feel so terrible because Rachel has been my friend for so long, and if I send you to go and see how she's doing, I just feel like it would send the message that I didn't care enough to come myself so I just sent you," she said, looking as if even just saying how she felt about it was immensely difficult.

"No," I said firmly. "I'm going and you are staying here."

She didn't try and contest it anymore, although from the fact that we ended up getting ready for the day to go downstairs silently, I got the feeling she still wasn't entirely happy with me or the decision. To be honest, in the given situation, I didn't blame her for feeling that way.

When we both went down to the kitchen, I told Phoebe I would sort breakfast and that she could go and check on the kids and our guest. I ended up making a full rack of toast and cups of orange juice for the kids and then a pot of tea for myself and Phoebe if she wanted some, but I was aware she might prefer to have coffee.

Not long after I had sat down at the table with my teapot and cup, the door opened and the kids walked in, looking like various different stages between being undressed and dressed for the day. Nevertheless, I decided since the lack of full day clothing on neither kid seemed to be particularly inappropriate, that it wasn't necessary to comment on it this morning.

"Morning, Dad," Chris said, as he pulled out a chair from under the table with a sharp screech as the legs of the chair scraped the floor.

"Morning," I said. "Can I interest you in a slice of toast on this fine morning?" I said, reaching across the table to the toast rack to move a few slices to his plate, as I heard him laugh at how posh I sounded asking him if he wanted toast in that manner. After all, I aim to please.

I push the plate towards Chris, who promptly started buttering it and then applying a further layer of marmalade, and then plated up Addie some toast, who proceeded to butter the slices and then apply chocolate spread, as she had a strong dislike for marmalade and claimed that anyone who ate it was devil spawn. Whether this comment was more of a pointed jab at her brother or at marmalade lovers in general, I would only be able to speculate.

Around thirty or thirty-five minutes later, Monica and Phoebe joined us downstairs and we all ended up sitting together until I caught a look at the kitchen clock from the opposite side of the room and knew that I had to get the kids back upstairs to continue getting ready for school otherwise they would definitely be late, and neither Phoebe nor I needed that extra level of stress given everything else going on in our lives.

"Come on upstairs, you rascals," I called to the twins, as they stood up from the table, ready to follow me upstairs. "Pheebs, I'm just going to take these two upstairs to get ready and then I'll do the school run on my way to visiting Rachel at the hospital," I said to Phoebe before leaving the room with the children.

Once I was satisfied that both twins were in their room and were actually going to get on with getting ready instead of starting to play around the minute I left the room, I decided I was going to go back downstairs as I remembered that I had promised Monica and Phoebe that I would do once I was satisfied that the kids had settled.

They both looked happy when I opened the door to the kitchen and walked over to sit at one of the empty seats at the table. "I think that's getting the kids ready for school done and dusted for the time being," I said to Monica and Phoebe, heaving a sigh of relief as it was unusual for the twins to have succumbed to the task of getting ready for school so easily.

"Honestly, babe, if it wasn't for you, I don't know how the fuck this family would survive as well as we do," Phoebe said to me, sounding as if she was almost experiencing some kind of second-hand tiredness over looking after the kids, a feeling that the both of us knew far too well. Monica probably could relate, just in her case, it was more likely to be when they were much younger.

I stood up from my seat of the table firstly with the intent of offering a drink to the others as I made one for myself, and secondly to kiss Phoebe on the cheek gently as I passed on my way over to the countertop where we kept the kettle.

"Can I interest either of you lovely ladies in a cup of tea or coffee?" I asked, getting three cups out of the cupboard whilst I waited for them to answer.

"Could I have a cappuccino?" Monica asked, as I sent a nod in her direction.

"Same for me, please babe," Phoebe said, starting to get up from her seat.

Me thinking that there was going to be a chance that she was going to offer to help me with it, I said, "Pheebs, I've got it all under control here, you just sit and relax." She gave me a look that was a little confused, as I had clearly slightly misjudged her intentions, but she sat down as I'd said so clearly she wasn't really unhappy by it.

When I'd made all three mugs, I then shot a glance at Phoebe, which I knew that she would understand was my silent cry for help with moving all the steaming mugs over to the table with minimal to no spillages as I was sure no one here would appreciate an emergency visit to the ER, especially because it would mean that I'd have limited time with Rachel inn the oncology ward.

Quite a while after we both sat back down, Phoebe looked down at the screen of her phone and then looked back up at me. "Babe, have you seen the time? Why are the twins not downstairs yet?" she asked me, eyebrows furrowing in concern.

I fumbled inside my pocket and bought out my phone so that I could see the time, and agreed with Phoebe that it was pretty late, and was kind of concerned as well that the kids hadn't yet come downstairs.

"I'll go and check on them," I said to Phoebe, getting up from the table and walking out of the kitchen and then down the corridor to the stairs to walk up them to the twins' bedroom.

When I got upstairs and up onto the landing, I saw that the twins' bedroom door was open, but I couldn't hear any noises, which confused me a little because surely they had to have been doing something up here that would mean that they didn't want to come downstairs yet. Nevertheless, I continued to walk over to the bedroom and pushed the door open.

"Hi guys," I said to the kids, who were sitting on Chris's bed. "Are you ready for school or not?"

Addie jumped down off of the bed and went over to what I saw was her rucksack and dragged it over to Chris's bed and started unzipping things and then took a few things out. "Do you want me to help you to pack, Ads?" I asked her.

"I'll be fine, but thank you Dad," Addie said.

"What about you, Chris? Have you packed?" I asked him, as he looked up from where he was sitting with his Nintendo Switch on his lap.

"Nah," he said, looking back down at his Switch guiltily.

I thought about getting annoyed with him over that, as both Phoebe and I had given him clear instructions to get ready and he had clearly actively disobeyed that, but in the end I decided that I should just leave it and that there were greater battles to fight, especially given the stress of recent life situations, and so I just packed for Chris with him directing me as to what I would need to pack for him.

About fifteen minutes later, Addie, Chris and I went downstairs as they were finally both ready. I sent both into the kitchen so that Monica and Phoebe could see that they were ready whilst I got myself ready with getting shoes on and my jacket.

Once both kids had said goodbye to Phoebe, they both came out and we all went to my car and I started the engine and then I was off driving to the kids' elementary school. When I dropped them off, I continued to the hospital where Rachel would be waiting for me to visit her. I was less nervous about going to see her as I was hopeful that she wouldn't be in a worse state than we had seen her before, as I knew that it would be the last thing that I think anyone would need right now.

When I pulled into the hospital parking lot and had parked the car, I sat with the engine running whilst I debated sending a text to Carol or Ross just in case they were already planning on visiting her today, but in the end decided that it would just be a waste of my time to do so. I switched off the engine, pocketed the car keys after locking the car and then made my way towards the entrance to the main entrance to the hospital.

"Mike Buffay-Hannigan," I said to the lady at reception. "Here to visit Rachel Geller-Green in the Oncology ward."

"I'll buzz you through," the lady said, grabbing the lanyard round her neck and taking it off before flashing the card against some device that I couldn't see as it was behind the wall, but that I assumed activated the door mechanism. "You've been here before and know your way around, right?" the lady asked me before she sat down at her desk again. "I mean, I could go and get a colleague of mine to take you round if not."

"It's all fine," I told the lady, with what I hoped was a reassuring smile.

I proceeded to walk through the doorway and then onto the staircase that would take me up to a second floor with a landing that was opposite two elevators that would be able to take me up to right outside the massive overhead sign for oncology department. When I was standing in the elevator, my leg had started to twitch and it only seemed to worsen as I walked down the corridor to Rachel's all-too-familiar cancer ward.

Rather reluctantly, I pushed open the door at the end that I knew was where Rachel was staying, and walked straight in.

"Um, Rachel, you have a guest!" the nurse who I saw was fiddling with something to do with Rachel's treatment beside her bed called out.

Rachel turned her head towards me, attempting to shuffle herself further up against the headboard but struggling. Luckily, the nurse realised she was having trouble with it before I could get over there to help her, and so I was able to just sit down by her bed, confident as far as I knew that she was in the most comfort that was physically possible given her situation.

"Mike!" Rachel exclaimed, her tone a mixture of happiness and surprise. "This is such a nice surprise!"

She leaned across the bed to hug me and I attempted to put my arms round her without tangling any of the wires that were attached to her. Somehow we managed to make it work, and I sat back once we'd broken apart so that the two of us could just talk and catch up. It also would allow me to get a better look at Rachel to be able to judge how much she looked like her healthy self to report back to Monica and Phoebe.

"So tell me, how are yourself, Phoebe and the kids doing these days?" Rachel asked me, her eyes alight with happiness because of my presence.

"Not bad," I said, realising a minute later how enthused that made me sound. "I mean, just enjoying the run up to the holidays and family life in general," I added, hoping that this would be enough to redeem my less happy sounding answer.

"You and Phoebe both absolutely deserve that," Rachel smiled, making a lump start to grow in my throat as what she'd just said properly sank in.

"Thank you so much," I said, though I was barely able to get the words out as my throat felt suddenly far too tight.

"I've been doing all right, by the way," Rachel added, clearly interpreting my sudden silence after my last comment to be related to worrying about her current state of health, which wasn't far off the real reason for it. "Just keeping swimming along, as they say in that kids' film," she added, chuckling somewhat weakly.

I smiled politely back at her because it was all I could do without completely shattering.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	31. REALLY IMPORTANT UPDATE

**REALLY IMPORTANT UPDATE:**

 **Due to the fact that I recently learned that one of my grandparents has had to battle with cervical cancer in the last 15 months, and has fortunately since recovered, I have decided that I may not be able to or it may simply just be unwise for me to continue with the storyline of Rachel's cancer (she also battles cervical cancer in this fanfiction trilogy). I'm really sorry for this, but I hope you will all understand.**


	32. Chapter 31

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 31 – Joey

I followed Gina through the JFK airport to the entrance, where Mike would be waiting to pick me and Gina up and take us to his and Phoebe's house, where we would be staying during our whole trip. At first, the trip had been planned only whilst I was filming in New York but Gina had been able to pull some strings to allow us to stay in New York for longer to be able to join Phoebe and Mike and the others for the holidays as well.

When we were standing outside the airport entrance on the sidewalk opposite the cab bay, I took my phone out from my pocket and checked to see if Mike had sent a message providing any updates on whether he had arrived yet or whether he was still on his way. He had not, and so I decided to send him a quick text, to which he said that he was going to reverse his car out of his current parking spot and come and pull up next to the cab bay that we were standing opposite.

Sure enough, a couple of minutes later Mike's car pulled in. He opened his car door and came round to the sidewalk, asking Gina and I whether we wanted an extra hand to help us get our stuff into the trunk of the car. We both accepted the offer, and I told Gina that she should get into the car and give me her stuff to put into the trunk of the car. Reluctantly, she got into the car and then Mike and I got to work on trying to fit everything into the car.

It took less time than I might have expected, and soon enough all three of us were back in the car and making our way back to Phoebe and Mike's house. Though I was a little tired from travelling, I was mostly excited at the prospect of finally being able to see everyone in what had been at least fifteen years since we last properly would regularly hang out as just the six of us.

I was particularly excited to meet all the kids, whether it was my first time seeing them at all, or if it was just seeing how much they had grown, since all the kids that fit into that category were significantly older than they were when I first met them.

"So, how are things with you nowadays?" I asked Mike, as I was sitting shotgun to him and there would be no point in making conversation with Gina since we saw each other daily already.

"Not too bad," Mike said, sounding jolly even though understandably his main focus was the traffic ahead of us. "Actually, I'm not sure if Phoebe or I mentioned this, but we have Monica staying with us at the moment whilst her and Chandler sort a few things out."

From how vague Mike was being about exactly what was going on between the two of them, I gathered that it was not a subject that anyone particularly enjoyed talking about. Nevertheless, I said that I was really happy to be able to get the chance to catch up with Mon, as I'm sure she was me.

The journey from the airport to Mike and Phoebe's house was far more quick and pleasant than I'd expected it to be. Mike offered to help Gina and I take our bags to the two guests rooms that we were staying in, but I refused. Once I had sufficiently unpacked, which consisted of leaving it until later, I walked back down the corridor from the guest rooms that Mike said would take me to the door to the kitchen.

Sure enough, I found a door at the far end of the corridor that I thought it was fair to assume was the one to the kitchen, and pushed it open. I couldn't help but feel slightly relieved to see Phoebe and Monica sitting at a table over a couple of cups of coffee towards the centre of the room, and walked over to join them.

"Joey!" Phoebe cried when she saw me, immediately halting whatever she'd been saying to Monica and standing up to accept my hug.

"So good to see you, Pheebs," I said, then pulling away from Phoebe after a couple of minutes. "You too, Mon," I added, walking around the table to where Mon was sat.

She stood up as Phoebe had done, and we hugged for a couple of minutes. "You look good," Mon said to me when we had pulled away from each other and were sitting back down at the table.

"Thank you, you do too," I said to Mon, as I noticed Phoebe get up from the table and move her lips as if she was about to start talking to me.

"Can I offer you a drink?" Phoebe asked me as I had predicted that she was going to.

"A beer would be great if you have any," I answered, as Phoebe started walking towards the fridge, presumably to get a beer out for me.

Sure enough, she came back to the table a couple of minutes later with a can of my favourite beer, as she clearly hadn't forgotten my favourite types despite how long it had been since any of us last hung out.

"You remembered!" I exclaimed as I took the can off of her, flipping up the pull tab on the can and taking a hearty swig.

"Of course," Phoebe said, sounding shocked that I wouldn't have expected her to remember as she had.

"You're an extraordinary human and I love you," I said to Phoebe, unable to stop smiling because I was just so happen even with this mini reunion.

"Not as extraordinary as yourself, that I can assure you of," Phoebe replied back to me, chuckling a little as she spoke.

I laughed as well, because I was far from extraordinary, though it was still incredibly sweet of Phoebe to claim that I was.

"Twins home yet?" I asked, looking around the kitchen as if I thought that they would suddenly materialise in front of my eyes this second.

"Few hours to go yet," Phoebe sighed, miming wiping her forehead as both Monica and I laughed. I was sure that Monica had laughed because of the shared understanding of how challenging looking after twins could be, something that I have no experience on.

"They really that difficult to cope with?" I asked Phoebe, realising that perhaps she really hadn't been joking.

"You'd be surprised," was Phoebe's fairly nondescript answer.

Once we had finished catching up, the three of us decided to watch a bit of trashy TV to pass up the time until the rest of the family would get back. Mike arrived home with the twins, which Phoebe looked grateful for albeit a little surprised, though so was I.

Mike appeared to notice the fact that I looked a little surprised as he started saying, "Either Phoebe or I usually pick up the kids, as we both feel that they're still too young for us to feel comfortable with them getting themselves home yet."

I nodded, understanding now why he had disappeared for so long and then suddenly reappeared with his son and daughter.

"Uncle Joey!" the daughter exclaimed as she ran towards me, who's name I realised that as much as I'd been worried about forgetting their names, luckily this didn't seem to be an issue with Adeline or Christopher.

"Good to see you, Adster," I said, giving Adeline a big bear hug. "How's school?" I added, once we'd broken apart.

"Meh," she answered, with a shrug. "Not bad, not that interesting either."

"School was boring for me too," I said with a chuckle, which Adeline joined in on.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Phoebe give me what was pretty damn subtle but clearly was still a death stare, probably with the intention that I don't reinforce any negative ideas around school as both kids would understandably still be very impressionable and definitely wouldn't benefit from any more encouragement to dislike school.

Adeline changed the subject, asking me about what it was like to be on a film set, as clearly Phoebe and Mike had told both twins about my more unusual career choice.

"It's usually just as fun as you would imagine it to be," I replied. "But sometimes you get really horrible people on set, and rather than being able to be honest about how you feel towards them, you're forced to be nice anyway."

"Yeah, that's gotta suck," Adeline agreed. "Have you met anyone famous yet?" she added, her eyes lighting up at the prospect of me having stories about meeting celebrities to share with her.

"Not of anyone you would know, unfortunately," I replied, hoping that Adeline wouldn't feel too disheartened by it. "I'm yet to work with some of my biggest inspirations yet, so you definitely can't have quite everything you want even if it's in your most favourite job."

Adeline nodded, not looking too unhappy at what I said but still looking as curious as before. After a few minutes of waiting for what she wanted to say to me next, I realised that she seemed to be struggling to think of any more questions, and decided to give her a hint.

"Want to hear any of my most embarrassing stories on set?" I asked her, as she nodded profusely.

We both walked over to the couch, as we both seemed to agree that sitting on the couch to hear the stories I had to share was going to be more comfortable than standing up where we'd previously been.

"So I once had to nip to the restroom before starting a take," I started saying, as I made eye contact with Adeline to make sure that she still seemed interested as I didn't quite fancy her first proper memory of me in a long while being one of being bored to death. "And by the time I'd come back out and walked round to the set, it was clear that everyone had started filming and I just kind of stood off the side of the set, not wanting to walk on and disturb things but knowing that I should be there and feeling incredibly guilty about not. Nevertheless, I stood there for about fifteen minutes until the director noticed me, and at that moment I just wanted more than anything to suffer a heart attack on the spot because I was so embarrassed and ashamed."

Much to my own brains' delight after cringing very hard over the amount of pain that memory caused me, I noticed that Adeline was trying very hard not to laugh clearly because she thought it'd be rude of her to do so, but I could see that she was having real trouble with it. In spite of myself, I said, "It's fine – you can laugh; it was a noob error from ages ago."

The relief that fell over her facial expression when she burst into laughter really showed me just how hard it had been not to laugh at this particular story, which I had since understood very well after recounting this anecdote umpteenth times and witnessed the same reaction from almost everyone who'd listened, both fellow colleagues and just general friends or family members.

"Honestly, one day I aspire to be even one bit as truly iconic as you are," Adeline said to me, once she had regained composure from her laughter.

"That's incredibly sweet of you," I said, smiling back in the hope that it would convey just how much that compliment had meant to me. "Honestly, I just have a habit of doing chronically noob-like things, and then I guess I have many stories to tell, but I also have quite a few people who aren't as fond about me because of it too."

Adeline did look as if she understood what I'd been trying to get across, but I didn't seem to have persuaded her that I was nowhere near as cool as she seemed to think and was actually just pretty damn stupid and unfortunate. Still, I had to admit it was nice having a fake niece think of me as an inspiration to her.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	33. Chapter 32

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 32 – Phoebe

"Are you excited for the hospital check up?" Mike asked me as he switched on the ignition of the car and started backing out of the parking space.

"Of course," I said, as I checked through my handbag to make sure that I'd definitely brought my hospital stuff for the check-up appointment.

"Since we're obviously bringing up twins now," Mike asked me as he turned on the indicator as we drove around a roundabout, "how would you feel if the baby we've made now is a twin or a triplet?"

"Honestly, I would be more than happy," I answered. "I mean, we've been looking after Mon and Chandler's kids so much particularly recently and so I think that we've proved ourselves more than qualified if that is the case."

We continued talking about how we'd feel about the possibility of having two or three more children right up until Mike was pulling into a parking space in the parking lot and then walking up to the entrance together.

I spoke to the woman who was sitting behind the glass screen of reception, which was almost straight as you walk into the entrance.

"My husband and I are here for my 8 week ultrasound in the neonatal clinic with Dr Peters," I said to the woman.

"Do you know where you're going or would you like a nurse to direct you?" the woman asked me and Mike.

"We know where we're going, but thank you," Mike answered for the both of us.

We found our way to the neonatal ward, which over the next nine months would likely become a second home to us, and introduced ourselves at the ward reception desk. We were told to take a seat and wait to be called by the OB/GYN we had our appointment scheduled with, Dr Peters.

"Have you thought about names yet or do you think I'm getting too far ahead of myself here?" I asked Mike, feeling quite nervous in the anticipation of waiting to be called in for our appointment.

"No, no – I have too," Mike said, turning to me and smiling as he put his arm around my shoulder, which I interpreted to be his way of responding to how anxious I'd gotten.

"If it's just one kid," I began saying, "then I'll call it Phoebe-Lily. If it's twins, it will be Rebecca and Rhys and if it's triplets, then we can use all three."

"I like the sound of those," Mike said, taking me aback at first because I expected him to want to talk it through at least a few more times before making any kind of final agreements on the exact names that we would be naming our child or children, depending on how many heartbeats are detected in the ultrasound.

We talked a little longer just to pass the time until I heard my name being called and Mike and I both looked over from the waiting area to the corridor of consultation rooms.

"Mr and Mrs. Buffay-Hannigan?" Dr Peters called a second time.

The two of us stood up from where we were sitting and made our way over to her consultation room, therefore making it clear we were the ones she wanted to see. Once we had settled down into the seats in the room, Dr Peters and Mike and I introduced ourselves.

"I'm Dr Peters," Dr Peters said, first shaking my hand then Mike's.

"I'm Phoebe," I said and Mike introduced himself.

"So, Phoebe, I've read your notes and apparently this isn't your first time being pregnant," Dr Peters said, sounding very professional but welcoming at the same time as she sifted through some paperwork in a small plastic folder. "You and your husband have two eight year old fraternal twins, right?" Dr Peters prompted.

Mike and I nodded in unison as Dr Peters continued talking.

"Phoebe has also been a surrogate mother for her brother's fraternal triplets. Therefore you both understand there is a definite chance of us finding more than one heartbeat during the sonogram, obviously then identifying that Mom is carrying two or three foetuses," she said, as both of Mike and I continued to nod.

"Do you have any questions or concerns so far about the pregnancy before we just move straight on to the ultrasound?" Dr Peters asked both Mike and I.

I looked at Mike, who shook his head, before speaking for the both of us by saying, "No we don't."

Mike sat next to me whilst I laid on the reclining hospital bed that was attached to the machine that performed the ultrasound and had the gel that means that the sensors can detect the foetus when scanning my belly.

"You ready to go ahead with things now?" Dr Peters said, as I nodded and she proceeded to move the scanner which resembled the snout of a vacuum cleaner.

With one of my hands firmly encased in Mike's grip, we both started watching the screen of the ultrasound like a hawk as Dr Peter started to talk us through the process.

"So, from what I can initially see all looks pretty normal, I can see at least one body and heartbeat but the size of the lump which I know is a body is too big to just be one foetus, and so as suspected, we're looking at multiple baby Buffay-Hannigans," Dr Peters said as I felt Mike squeeze my hand by way of encouragement as all was so good, so far.

Dr Peter did continue to talk, but none of what she was saying was particularly interesting or important until at last she confirmed, "There's three foetuses, all looking happy and healthy so far."

I turned my head towards Mike and exchanged a smile that I would remember for many years to come as it was so full of joint happiness and relief.

"Have you thought of names yet?" Dr Peters said, as she started prepping me to be able to get off of the seat and go home with Mike as the end of our appointment was clearly nearing.

"Obviously this is completely dependent on the distribution of boys and girls between the triplets, but I think we've come to the agreement that the strongest contenders are Rhys, Phoebe-Lily and Rebecca," I said, answering for the two of us as I was confident that Mike would be okay with it after our conversation about names in the waiting area.

"Those are really good choices," Dr Peters said, as I got up from the hospital chair and took my bag from Mike's outstretched arm.

"Thank you so much," I said as Mike nodded in agreement and smiled.

"Good to see the two of you and I'm so happy I was able to give you such exciting news," Dr Peters said, before we said our final goodbyes to her and then walked back out of the room to the rest of the ward.

We talked about the appointment and the order in which we wanted to break the news to various different members of the family and friends on our way back out to the parking lot. We ended up deciding that we would sit Addie and Chris down later at home and tell them then that they would be an older brother and sister to their three new baby brothers or sisters. If Joey was around then, we'd also tell him. Then one of us would post about it on Facebook so that Rachel, Ross, Monica and Chandler could find out.

On the journey home, I also spent a little time gathering my own thoughts about the appointment. On the one hand, I was of course overjoyed that I would become a mother to five kids, but on the other hand, it would mean an even longer, more exhausting journey for another eighteen years. Nevertheless, I tried my best to reassure myself that with Mike's support, we had a fighting chance of being able to successfully and happily bring up 5 children together.

Almost as if Mike had read my mind and knew exactly what I needed to hear in that moment, when he was taking the keys out of the ignition so we could lock the car and then go inside the house to share the news, he said to me, "You're a wonderful mom, you know."

I smiled gratefully at him, as he would have no idea how much what he just said would've mattered to me.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


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